Microsoft commissioned
Matthew Carter to create an optical typeface
family (with the hope to make style switching automatic, though
that didn’t come to pass immediately). The design was directly
influenced by scientific legibility studies conducted by
Microsoft’s Advanced Reading Technologies team led by Kevin Larson.
Development began in 2006. First used as the default typeface for
the “Reading View” mode in Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 which
shipped with Windows 8.1 (2013). The finished fonts were produced
by Ross Mills and John Hudson at Tiro
Typeworks.
The family spans four styles, all available in six optical
sizes: Small, Text, Subheading, Heading, Display, Banner. The
character set includes Greek and Cyrillic. First released with
Microsoft products in 2013. Version More…
Microsoft commissioned Matthew Carter to create an optical typeface family (with the hope to make style switching automatic, though that didn’t come to pass immediately). The design was directly influenced by scientific legibility studies conducted by Microsoft’s Advanced Reading Technologies team led by Kevin Larson. Development began in 2006. First used as the default typeface for the “Reading View” mode in Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 which shipped with Windows 8.1 (2013). The finished fonts were produced by Ross Mills and John Hudson at Tiro Typeworks.
The family spans four styles, all available in six optical sizes: Small, Text, Subheading, Heading, Display, Banner. The character set includes Greek and Cyrillic. First released with Microsoft products in 2013. Version 2.03 was released by Tiro Typeworks in 2025.
The loosely spaced Fluent Sitka Small is a version intended to aid in dyslexic reading.
