Tom Rickner

Tom Rickner has developed font software for over 16 years. During that time, he has worked on dozens of complex font projects. Tom is recognized for the highly regarded TrueType production and hinting of Matthew Carter’s Georgia, Verdana, Tahoma and Nina typeface families, commissioned by Microsoft.

While employed by Apple Computer, Tom oversaw the development of the first TrueType fonts to ship with Apple’s System 7 and during the past 12 years, working for the Font Bureau on a freelance basis and for Agfa Monotype, he has produced custom font solutions for many companies, including Adobe Systems, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lexmark, Lotus, Microsoft and Nokia. Tom is now a partner in Ascender Corporation, where he develops custom font solutions for clients in need of his unique blend of technical and aesthetic abilities.

Tom’s design and technical experience includes hand editing bitmap fonts, designing original outline typefaces, extending existing typefaces for new character sets and scripts, and all manner of outline font production. He has produced TrueType, TrueType GX, PostScript Type 1 and Multiple Master fonts for implementation in nearly every imaging environment. His experience with non-Latin scripts is broad, having designed fonts for the Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Thai, Thaana and Cherokee scripts. Tom also played a key role in the development of fonts for Agfa Monotype’s proprietary stroke font format.

Tom’s original designs include Amanda, Buffalo Gal and Hamilton. He collaborated with the Font Bureau on the development of several projects, including the Graphite and Tekton MultipleMaster families for Adobe, a technically sophisticated font solution for Prodigy, and a revival and expansion of W. A. Dwiggins’ Eldorado family for Premiere Magazine.

While best known for his design skills, his knowledge of TrueType and the production of fonts for low-resolution environments, Tom’s real talent is his ability to envision new and unique design and technical solutions to customer problems. Tom is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, with a BS degree in Printing Management. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, hometown of the Oscar Meyer weinermobile.

Tom Rickner has developed font software for over 16 years. During that time, he has worked on dozens of complex font projects. Tom is recognized for the highly regarded TrueType production and hinting of Matthew Carter’s Georgia, Verdana, Tahoma and Nina typeface families, commissioned by Microsoft.