Robert Norton (typographer)

Robert Norton (1929–2001) was a British publisher, consultant on printing and Microsoft executive.[1][2]

The son of the children's author Mary Norton, he established the company Photoscript, a phototypesetting technology company, before moving into digital font technology.[1][3] He later moved to Seattle to take up a position as an executive at Microsoft, advising on fonts to be included with Windows.[1][4][5] Many of the release notes accompanying Microsoft typefaces were written by him.[4] While in Washington, he self-published the book Types Best Remembered/Types Best Forgotten on good and bad choices of font.[6]

He married Abigail Scully in the United States and had four children.[1] After retiring from Microsoft in 1997, he ran his fine press brand, the Parsimony Press, in Huntspill, Somerset.[7][8]

  1. ^ a b c d Barker, Nicolas. "Robert Norton (obituary)". The Independent. Archived from the original on 13 April 2001. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  2. ^ Neil Macmillan (2006). An A-Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press. p. 141. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.
  3. ^ The truth about Westminster (the font!), Mercer Design]
  4. ^ a b Berry, John. "The Mischievous Mind behind Microsoft's TrueType Fonts". Creative Pro. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  5. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben. "How we made the typeface Comic Sans". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  6. ^ Norton, Robert (1993). A Collection of Observations on Types Best Remembered by Various People Charitably Disposed to an Expatriate. Kirkland: Parsimony Press. ISBN 1884606008.
  7. ^ "It is with great sadness to report that our dear friend Robert passed away in peace last night". Microsoft. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  8. ^ "The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2017.