Verdana and Georgia's prevalence is no accident: they were distributed widely, then relied upon by web designers for years. But their ubiquity has merit: Georgia and Verdana were two of the first typefaces created specifically for screen use. They were born from the brain and hand of distinguished type designer Matthew Carter, crafted for screen readability, especially at small sizes. The production was crowned with Tom Rickner’s exhaustive hinting for pristine display in any rendering environment.

It was inevitable that these two faces would find their way into print. Unfortunately, the qualities that made them great on screen made them less than ideal on paper, especially when large. The small number of styles also limited the families’ flexibility. Many organizations, like IKEA, which call for these typefaces in their style guides have only had two weights to work with. That can’t be easy for a company with a 376-page catalog and huge facilities with complex tagging and wayfinding requirements.

Starting today, relying on one’s favorite set of webfonts no longer means being confined to regular, italic, bold, and bold italic. Thanks to a partnership between Font Bureau, Carter & Cone, and Monotype Imaging, Georgia and Verdana are now extended families, enabling much more versatile use on screen and paper. Carter and Rickner worked with Steve Matteson of Monotype Imaging and David Berlow of Font Bureau to create the new, expanded editions of the fonts.