Steve Matteson

Steven R. Matteson (born 1965) is an American typeface designer whose work is included in several computer operating systems and embedded in game consoles, cell phones and other electronic devices.^[1] He has created bespoke fonts for major brands including Toyota, Unilever, Google, and Microsoft.^[2]

For Microsoft, he designed the font family Segoe, included since Windows XP,^[3] Aptos, which became the default font in Microsoft Office Suite in 2023, and he also designed the brand and user-interface fonts used in both the original Microsoft Xbox and the Xbox 360.^[4] For Google, Matteson designed the Droid font collection used in the Android mobile device platform,^[5]

Matteson is a 1988 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology where he studied typography, design and printing. Upon graduation, he spent two years learning font hinting technology while employed at laser-printer manufacturer QMS.

In 1990 Matteson began work at Monotype Corporation (later Agfa-Monotype) contributing to the creation of the Windows 3.1x core TrueType fonts: Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New.^[6] Matteson produced fonts (such as Goudy Ornate and Gill Floriated Capitals) and directed custom-font design for companies including Agilent Technologies,^[7] Symantec and Microsoft.^[8] Matteson designed Andalé Mono as a mono-spaced command line and coding font for Taligent. The font is now bundled with Mac OS X and was one of the original Core fonts for the Web.

Matteson directed custom-type development for Agfa-Monotype until 2003. In 2004, he became a founding partner and Director of Type Design at Ascender Corporation in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.^[9] In 2005, Matteson designed the font family Convection for use in the branding and user-interface of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console. Matteson also designed the user-interface font used in Microsoft’s Zune music player.^[10]

In 2007 software maker Red Hat released the open-source Liberation fonts family designed by Matteson. Also in 2007, Matteson designed the Droid family of fonts^[11] included in the Android mobile-phone platform supported by the Open Handset Alliance.

In 2010, Monotype acquired Ascender, bringing Matteson back to Monotype.^[12] During his time at Monotype, he was Creative Type Director^[13] and created many custom typefaces for worldwide clients including Toyota,^[14] Barnes & Noble, Motorola, Google, Microsoft, Rogers Communications, John Deere, Quicken and others.^[15] Human Machine Interface design was a focus for Monotype at the time and Matteson worked with multiple automotive clients.^[16] In 2014, Matteson performed legibility studies with MIT’s AgeLab to research the impact of choice of typeface on driver safety.^[17]

Matteson left Monotype in 2020 to found his own company, Matteson Typographics.^[18] His typeface Aptos became the new default font for Microsoft Office in 2024 (announced 2023), after being initially introduced in 2021 as one of several candidate fonts.^[19] Since 2015, Matteson has been a typography and letterpress instructor at The Book Arts League^[20] in Boulder, Colorado. In 2025, Matteson was appointed as the 2025–27 Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Graphic Arts at RIT.^[21]

Matteson has a deep appreciation for the work of Frederic Goudy and many of his releases from his Matteson Typogrpahics are modern interpretations of Goudy’s lesser-known typefaces.^[22]

Google Easter egg: If a user searches “Open Sans” or “Steve Matteson” in Google’s search engine, it will change the search results to the Open Sans font.