Matthew Butterick

American typographer and lawyer (born 1970) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthew Butterick

Matthew Coffin Butterick (born November 15, 1970)[1][4] is an American typographer, lawyer, writer, and computer programmer. He received the 2012 Golden Pen Award from the Legal Writing Institute for his book Typography for Lawyers,[5] which started as a website in 2008[6] based on his experience as a practicing attorney.[7] He has worked for The Font Bureau and founded his own website design company, Atomic Vision (purchased by Red Hat in 1999).[8] Expanding Typography for Lawyers, Butterick published Practical Typography as a "web-based book" in July 2013.[9]

Quick Facts Born, Education ...
Matthew Butterick
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Born
Matthew James Butterick[1]

(1970-11-15) November 15, 1970 (age 54)
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of California, Los Angeles (JD)
Occupation(s)Writer, Typographer, Computer Programmer
SpouseJessica Coffin Butterick[2][3]
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Butterick graduated with a BA in visual and environmental studies from Harvard University.[8] He later earned a JD at the University of California, Los Angeles and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2007.[10]

As of November 2023, Butterick is serving as co-counsel in multiple class action lawsuits against AI companies GitHub Copilot, Stable Diffusion, Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt.[11]

Typefaces

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Perspective

Butterick's typeface designs include:

For Font Bureau

  • Wessex (1993), transitional text serif inspired by Bulmer and Caledonia
  • Herald Gothic (1993), a bevelled sans-serif
  • Berlin Sans (1994, part), a flared sans-serif based on Bernhard Negro
  • Hermes (1995), a blocky sans-serif loosely inspired by Berthold Block
  • Alix, a typewriter font

Self-released

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Butterick's serif font Equity
  • Equity, an updating of the 1930s body text serif design Ehrhardt.[12] Features weights designed to suit different types of paper and printers and correctly letter-spaced small caps characters.[13]
  • Concourse, loosely inspired by Dwiggins’ geometric sans-serif design Metro. Features stylistic alternates and small caps.[14]
  • Triplicate, a monospaced slab serif design inspired by typewriter fonts such as the default face used in the IBM Selectric. Essentially a further development of Alix, with more variants including a proportional version and a style designed specifically for displaying code.
  • Advocate, a caps-only slab and sans serif design. Reminiscent of mid-century American college sports team lettering, corporate logos and Bank Gothic. Somewhat resembles an expansion of Herald Gothic.
  • Heliotrope, an attempt to merge the characteristics of serif and sans serif fonts into a single typeface. It draws loose inspiration from typefaces such as Optima and Albertus.

References

Further reading

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