Carter Sans

Carter Sans: a wonderfully accomplished humanist sans serif with a beautiful twist

Matthew Carter has been involved in designing typefaces since before many of us were in diapers. With dozens of great typefaces to his name, he has finally put his name to one. His newest typeface, Carter Sans™, brings together those decades of wisdom, experience, and technical expertise. The result is a humanist sans with flared strokes and terminals, a feature that has more in common with the chisel rather than the broad nib pen. Subtle detail, elegant curves, and graceful proportions make for an exceptional and distinctive sans serif typeface, that Carter himself describes as a ‘humanist stressed sans.’ This imbues the letterforms with a dynamism sometimes lacking in humanist sans serifs. Use it to striking effect in all-caps settings, or for extended texts.

Carter Sans was recently used to great effect by Michael Bierut and Joe Marianek of Pentagram, in their work for the Art Directors Club.

Carter Sans italics are unfussy, with the only remnants of cursiveness in letters like e and f. It sets beautifully with the roman.

Award winning type designer Dan Reynolds (Malabar™ et al.) collaborated with Carter to produce a type that looks just magnificent in print; it would also make a fine choice for that letterpress project! Certainly a welcome addition to anyone’s type library.