Georgia and Verdana go pro

Georgia and Verdana now come in pro versions

A couple of years ago, type fans went nuts at the news IKEA had ditched Futura in favour of Verdana. Although Verdana had long been a favourite online, largely due to its ubiquity and also its readability at small sizes, using it for print was close to typographic sacrilege. But IKEA's decision for cross-media uniformity might irk less now Verdana – along with top-notch serif and .net favourite Georgia – have gotten the 'pro' treatment.

Editor and typographer John Berry writes on his blog that while he worked as a program manager at Microsoft Typography, the two typefaces fell within his purview, and so he was "in a position to encourage and approve a joint project of Ascender Corporation (now a part of Monotype Imaging) and the Font Bureau to work with [original designer Matthew] Carter to create a much-expanded set of fonts for both".

Two years after the project's announcement, Font Bureau and Monotype Imaging have released the new fonts. Berry describes them as "large type families, with five weights instead of two, each one with its accompanying italic, as well as small caps and several alternate kinds of numerals", and adds that all the weights and styles are repeated in condensed form. Given the rapid advancement in getting originally print-oriented fonts to the web by way of web fonts, it comes as something of an amusing twist to see two web stalwarts finally truly fit for print; but the changes of course also potentially ensure their survival in a world of modern web fonts.

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