Matthew Butterick Explained

Birth Name:	Matthew James Butterick
Birth Date:	15 November 1970
Birth Place:	Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation:	Writer, Typographer, Computer Programmer
Spouse:	Jessica Coffin Butterick^[1] ^[2]
Education:	Harvard University (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (JD)

Matthew Coffin Butterick (born November 15, 1970)^{[3] [4]} is an American typographer, lawyer, writer, and computer programmer. He received the 2012 Golden Pen Award from the Legal Writing Institute for his book Typography for Lawyers,^[5] which started as a website in 2008^[6] based on his experience as a practicing attorney.^[7] He has worked for The Font Bureau and founded his own website design company, Atomic Vision (purchased by Red Hat in 1999).^[8] Expanding Typography for Lawyers, Butterick published Practical Typography as a "web-based book" in July 2013.^[9]

Butterick graduated with a BA in visual and environmental studies from Harvard University.^[8] He later earned a JD at the University of California, Los Angeles and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2007.^[10]

As of November 2023, Butterick is serving as co-counsel in multiple class action lawsuits against AI companies GitHub Copilot, Stable Diffusion, Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt.^[11]

Typefaces

Butterick's typeface designs include:

For Font Bureau

• Wessex (1993), transitional text serif inspired by Bulmer and Caledonia
• Herald Gothic (1993), a bevelled sans-serif
• Berlin Sans (1994, part), a flared sans-serif based on Bernhard Negro
• Hermes (1995), a blocky sans-serif loosely inspired by Berthold Block
• Alix, a typewriter font

Self-released

• Equity, an updating of the 1930s body text serif design Ehrhardt.^[12] Features weights designed to suit different types of paper and printers and correctly letter-spaced small caps characters.^[13]
• Concourse, loosely inspired by Dwiggins’ geometric sans-serif design Metro. Features stylistic alternates and small caps.^[14]
• Triplicate, a monospaced slab serif design inspired by typewriter fonts such as the default face used in the IBM Selectric. Essentially a further development of Alix, with more variants including a proportional version and a style designed specifically for displaying code.
• Advocate, a caps-only slab and sans serif design. Reminiscent of mid-century American college sports team lettering, corporate logos and Bank Gothic. Somewhat resembles an expansion of Herald Gothic.
• Heliotrope, an attempt to merge the characteristics of serif and sans serif fonts into a single typeface. It draws loose inspiration from typefaces such as Optima and Albertus.

Further reading

• Web site: Poritz . Isaiah . AI’s Billion-Dollar Copyright Battle Starts With a Font Designer . Bloomberg Law . 2023-12-18 . en . 2024-01-17 . mdy-all . December 23, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231223013823/https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/ais-billion-dollar-copyright-battle-starts-with-a-font-designer . live .

External links

• Butterick's Practical Typography website
• Equity
• Concourse

Notes and References

1. Web site: Jessica Coffin Butterick # 255763 - Attorney Licensee Search. members.calbar.ca.gov. March 29, 2020. March 29, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200329223742/http://members.calbar.ca.gov/fal/Licensee/Detail/255763. live.
2. Web site: Matthew Butterick: Reversing the Tide of Declining Expectations. unitscale.com. July 26, 2023. May 14, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210514195300/https://unitscale.com/mb/reversing-the-tide/. bot: unknown.
3. Book: Butrick, Richard Porter . December 1979 . Butrick, Butterick, Buttrick In The U.S.A., 1635-1978 . Butrick . 9780960254804.
4. Web site: Matthew Coffin Butterick # 250953 - Attorney Licensee Search. members.calbar.ca.gov. July 14, 2020. December 3, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201203051036/http://members.calbar.ca.gov/fal/Licensee/Detail/250953. live.
5. Web site: Golden Pen Award. Legal Writing Institute. March 12, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402155551/http://www.lwionline.org/golden_pen_award.html. April 2, 2015. dead.
6. Web site: Matthew Butterick Gives Us Practicality. Elnar. Rachel. September 29, 2013. Rag Right. TypeEd. March 12, 2015. April 2, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402104340/http://type-ed.com/2013/09/29/matthew-butterick-practical-typography/. live.
7. Web site: Artist-Turned-Lawyer Highlights Typographic Detail in Legal Docs. Greenwood. Arin. May 1, 2011. ABA Journal. American Bar Association. March 12, 2015. April 2, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402153404/http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/looking_good/. live.
8. Web site: Typographer at Law: An Interview with Matthew Butterick. Heller. Steven. March 17, 2010. American Institute of Graphic Artistis. March 12, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151115152720/http://www.aiga.org/typographer-at-law-an-interview-with-matthew-butterick/. 2015-11-15.
9. Web site: The economics of a web-based book: year one. Butterick. Matthew. Practical Typography. March 12, 2015. March 12, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150312215346/http://practicaltypography.com/economics-year-one.html. live.
10. Web site: About Matthew Butterick. Butterick. Matthew. Practical Typography. March 12, 2015. March 15, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150315011453/http://practicaltypography.com/end-credits.html#bio. live.
11. Web site: Knibbs . Kate . Meet the Lawyer Leading the Human Resistance Against AI . Wired . November 28, 2023 . November 22, 2023 . November 28, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231128023739/https://www.wired.com/story/matthew-butterick-ai-copyright-lawsuits-openai-meta/ . live .
12. News: Porchez. Jean François. Equity review. Typographica. 13 July 2015. November 1, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211101202244/http://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/equity/. live.
13. Web site: Butterick. Matthew. Equity: specimen & manual. MBType. 7 August 2015. August 28, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210828023903/https://mbtype.com/pdf/equity-type-specimen.pdf. live.
14. Web site: Concourse specimen. Concoursefont.com. Matthew Butterick. 8 April 2016. April 5, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160405052309/http://concoursefont.com/. live.