Georgia is a transitional serif typeface

Typeface

In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....

 designed in 1993 by Matthew Carter

Matthew Carter

Matthew Carter is a type designer. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Carter's career in type design has witnessed the transition from physical metal type to digital type...

 and hinted

Font hinting

Font hinting is the use of mathematical instructions to adjust the display of an outline font so that it lines up with a rasterized grid. At low screen resolutions, hinting is critical for producing a clear, legible text...

 by Tom Rickner for the Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, as the serif companion to the first Microsoft sans serif screen font, Verdana

Verdana

Verdana is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation, with hand-hinting done by Thomas Rickner, then at Monotype. Demand for such a typeface was recognized by Virginia Howlett of Microsoft's typography group...

. Microsoft released the initial version of the font on November 1, 1996 as part of the core fonts for the Web

Core fonts for the Web

Core fonts for the Web was a project begun by Microsoft in 1996 to make a standard pack of fonts for the Internet. It was terminated in 2002. It included the proprietary fonts Andale Mono, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and...

 collection. Later, it was bundled with Internet Explorer 4.0 supplemental font pack.

Georgia is designed for clarity on a computer monitor even at small sizes, partially effective due to a large x-height

X-height

In typography, the x-height or corpus size refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter x in the font , as well as the u, v, w, and z...

. The typeface is named after a tabloid headline titled "Alien heads found in Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

."

The Georgia typeface is similar to Times New Roman, but with many subtle differences: Georgia is larger than Times at the same point size, and has a greater x-height at the same actual size; Times New Roman is slightly narrower, with a more vertical axis; and Georgia's serifs are slightly wider and have blunter, flatter ends. Georgia incorporates influences from Clarendon

Clarendon (typeface)

Clarendon is an English slab-serif typeface that was created in England by Robert Besley for Thorowgood and Co. , a type company formerly known as the Fann Street Foundry until approximately 1838. The font was published in 1845 after Besley, an employee of the foundry since 1826, was made a partner...

-style typefaces, especially in b, r, j, and c (uppercase and lowercase). Figures (numerals) are an exception: Georgia uses text (old-style) figures

Text figures

Text figures are numerals typeset with varying heights in a fashion that resembles a typical line of running text, hence the name...

 whereas Times New Roman has lining figures.

Georgia was part of Microsoft's core fonts for the Web

Core fonts for the Web

Core fonts for the Web was a project begun by Microsoft in 1996 to make a standard pack of fonts for the Internet. It was terminated in 2002. It included the proprietary fonts Andale Mono, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and...

 package and is preinstalled by default on Apple Macintosh and Windows-based computers. It has found popular use as an alternative serif typeface to Times New Roman.

Variants

Georgia Ref is a variant of Georgia consisting of a single weight, but with extra characters. It is bundled with Microsoft Bookshelf 2000, Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 99, Encarta Virtual Globe 99.

MS Reference Serif is a derivative of Georgia Ref with a bold weight and italic. This variation is included with Microsoft Encarta.

In 2007, Carter completed a new variant of Georgia for the graphical user interface

Graphical user interface

In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

 of the Bloomberg Terminal

Bloomberg Terminal

The Bloomberg Terminal is a computer system provided by Bloomberg L.P. that enables financial professionals to access the Bloomberg Professional service through which users can monitor and analyze real-time financial market data movements and place trades on the electronic trading platform...

.

New versions of the Georgia and Verdana typeface families were announced to be released in 2010. The new versions should have incorporated enhancements such as:

• New weights and widths beyond the original four fonts in each family
• Extensions to the character sets
• Extensions to the kerning
• OpenType typographic features for enhanced typography

Awards

The Cyrillic font won an award at Kyrillitsa in 1999.

May 26, 2011 Matthew Carter

Matthew Carter

Matthew Carter is a type designer. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Carter's career in type design has witnessed the transition from physical metal type to digital type...

 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in part for design of Georgia font.

External links

• Georgia font information (Microsoft typography)
• Georgia Ref font information (Microsoft typography)
• Article by Daniel Will-Harris