Editing Matthew Carter (section)

===London and New York===

Carter's career in type and graphic design has bridged the transition from physical metal type to digital type.

Despite Carter's training in the art of traditional punchcutting, his career developed at a time when [[metal type]] was rapidly being displaced by [[phototypesetting]]. This reduced the cost of designing and using a wide range of typefaces, since type could be stored on reels of film rather than as blocks of expensively engraved metal. In a book on Carter's career, historian [[James Mosley]], a few years older than Carter, would write of the period of their upbringing:
<blockquote>The [[Monotype Imaging|Monotype]] classic [fonts] dominated the typographical landscape ... in Britain, at any rate, they were so ubiquitous that, while their excellent quality was undeniable, it was possible to be bored by them and to begin to rebel against the bland good taste that they represented. In fact we were already aware by 1960 that they might not be around to bore us for too long. The death of metal type ... seemed at last to be happening.'<ref name="Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter">{{cite book|last1=Mosley|first1=James|chapter=Reviving the Classics: Matthew Carter and the Interpretation of Historical Models|editor1-last=Mosley|editor1-first=James|editor2-last=Re|editor2-first=Margaret|editor3-last=Drucker|editor3-first=Johanna|editor4-last=Carter|editor4-first=Matthew|title=Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter|date=2003|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=9781568984278|pages=31–34|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqXd_w4S4SsC&pg=PA32|access-date=30 January 2016}}</ref></blockquote>
Carter eventually returned to London where he became a freelancer. By 1961 Carter was able to use the skills he acquired to cut his own version of the semi-bold typeface [[Dante (typeface)|Dante]]. An early example of his work is the masthead logo he designed for the British magazine [[Private Eye]] in May 1962, still in use.<ref name="Matthew Carter's timeless typographic masthead for Private Eye magazine">{{cite web|last1=Walters|first1=John|title=Matthew Carter's timeless typographic masthead for Private Eye magazine|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/type-tuesday26|website=Eye|access-date=24 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=MacQueen|first=Adam|title=Private Eye The First 50 Years An A-Z|year=2011|publisher=Private Eye Productions Limited|page=180}}</ref> Previously the lettering had been different for the masthead of each issue; it was based on a typeface ('a bit of nameless juvenilia') which was never ultimately published.<ref name="Carter's Battered Stat">{{cite web|last1=Carter|first1=Matthew|title=Carter's Battered Stat|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/carters-battered-stat|website=Eye|access-date=5 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="Old School layout">{{cite web|title=Old School layout|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/old-school-layout|website=Eye Magazine|access-date=22 February 2016}}</ref> He also did early work for [[Heathrow Airport]].<ref name="Creative Bloq">{{cite web|last1=Webster|first1=Garrick|title=Matthew Carter Interview|url=http://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts/matthew-carter-1118715|website=Creative Bloq|date=19 January 2011 |access-date=22 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="Excoffon's Autograph">{{cite web|last1=Soar|first1=Matt|title=Excoffon's Autograph|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/excoffons-autograph|website=Eye Magazine|access-date=22 February 2016}}</ref>

Carter would later become the typographic advisor to [[Crosfield Electronics]], distributors of Photon [[phototypesetting]] machines. Carter designed many typefaces for [[Mergenthaler Linotype Company|Mergenthaler Linotype]] as well. Under Linotype, Carter created well-known typefaces including [[Snell Roundhand]], a [[script typeface]] and [[Bell Centennial]], intended for use in the [[Bell System]]'s phone directories and to celebrate its anniversary.

Based on the work of [[Robert Granjon]], a 16th century French engraver, Carter created the sharp, high-contrast family [[ITC Galliard|Galliard]]. This matched a family interest: Carter's father in the 1950s had indexed and examined original type by Granjon at the [[Plantin-Moretus Museum]] in Antwerp, and Carter had visited him several times to observe his progress. Carter's adaptation, more intended for display use than for body text, included some eccentricities of Granjon's original design, producing a result unlike many previous revivals of typefaces from the period.<ref name="Flawed Typefaces">{{cite web|last=Shaw|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Shaw (design historian)|title=Flawed Typefaces|url=http://www.printmag.com/featured/flawed-typefaces/|website=Print magazine|date=12 May 2011 |access-date=30 June 2015}}</ref> Carter wrote of his father's research that it had helped to demonstrate "that the finest collection of printing types made ''[by [[Christophe Plantin]]]'' in typography's golden age was in perfect condition (some muddle aside) [along with] Plantin's accounts and inventories which names the cutters of his types."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Drucker|first1=Margaret Re; essays by Johanna|last2=Mosley|first2=James|title=Typographically speaking : the art of Matthew Carter|date=2003|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqXd_w4S4SsC&pg=PA33|location=New York|isbn=978-1-56898-427-8|page=33|edition=2.}}</ref><ref name="or Garamont">{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link=James Mosley|title=Garamond or Garamont|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/garamond-or-garamont.html|website=Type Foundry blog|access-date=3 December 2015}}</ref>

Carter also advised [[IBM]] as an independent consultant in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Some history about Arial|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2011/09/blue-pencil-no-18%E2%80%94some-history-about-arial/|website=Paul Shaw Letter Design|access-date=22 May 2015}}</ref>