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]

Matthew Butterick
Born	Matthew James Butterick[1] (1970-11-15) November 15, 1970 (age 54) Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.[1]
Education	Harvard University (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (JD)
Occupation(s)	Writer, Typographer, Computer Programmer
Spouse	Jessica Coffin Butterick[2][3]

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

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

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

1. Butrick, Richard Porter (December 1979). Butrick, Butterick, Buttrick In The U.S.A., 1635-1978. Butrick. ISBN 9780960254804.
2. "Jessica Coffin Butterick # 255763 - Attorney Licensee Search". members.calbar.ca.gov. Archived from the original on March 29, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
3. "Matthew Butterick: Reversing the Tide of Declining Expectations". unitscale.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved July 26, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
4. "Matthew Coffin Butterick # 250953 - Attorney Licensee Search". members.calbar.ca.gov. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
5. Legal Writing Institute. "Golden Pen Award". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
6. Elnar, Rachel (September 29, 2013). "Matthew Butterick Gives Us Practicality". Rag Right. TypeEd. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
7. Greenwood, Arin (May 1, 2011). "Artist-Turned-Lawyer Highlights Typographic Detail in Legal Docs". ABA Journal. American Bar Association. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
8. Heller, Steven (March 17, 2010). "Typographer at Law: An Interview with Matthew Butterick". American Institute of Graphic Artistis. Archived from the original on November 15, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
9. Butterick, Matthew. "The economics of a web-based book: year one". Practical Typography. Archived from the original on March 12, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
10. Butterick, Matthew. "About Matthew Butterick". Practical Typography. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
11. Knibbs, Kate (November 22, 2023). "Meet the Lawyer Leading the Human Resistance Against AI". Wired. Archived from the original on November 28, 2023. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
12. Porchez, Jean François. "Equity review". Typographica. Archived from the original on November 1, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
13. Butterick, Matthew. "Equity: specimen & manual" (PDF). MBType. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
14. "Concourse specimen". Concoursefont.com. Matthew Butterick. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.

Further reading

• Poritz, Isaiah (December 18, 2023). "AI's Billion-Dollar Copyright Battle Starts With a Font Designer". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on December 23, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2024.

External links

• Butterick's Practical Typography website
• Equity
• Concourse