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Steven R. Matteson (born 1965) is an American typeface designer whose work is included in several computer operating systems and embedded in game consoles, cell phones and other electronic devices.^[1] He has created bespoke fonts for major brands including Toyota, Unilever, Google, and Microsoft.^[2]

For Microsoft, he designed the font family Segoe, included since Windows XP,^[3] Aptos, which became the default font in Microsoft Office Suite in 2023, and he also designed the brand and user-interface fonts used in both the original Microsoft Xbox and the Xbox 360.^[4] For Google, Matteson designed the Droid font collection used in the Android mobile device platform.^[5]

Matteson is a 1988 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology where he studied typography, design and printing. Upon graduation, he spent two years learning font hinting technology while employed at laser-printer manufacturer QMS.

In 1990 Matteson began work at Monotype Corporation (later Agfa-Monotype) contributing to the creation of the Windows 3.1x core TrueType fonts: Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New.^[6] Matteson produced fonts (such as Goudy Ornate and Gill Floriated Capitals) and directed custom-font design for companies including Agilent Technologies,^[7] Symantec and Microsoft.^[8] Matteson designed Andalé Mono as a mono-spaced command line and coding font for Taligent. The font is now bundled with Mac OS X and was one of the original Core fonts for the Web.

Matteson directed custom-type development for Agfa-Monotype until 2003. In 2004, he became a founding partner and Director of Type Design at Ascender Corporation in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.^[9] In 2005, Matteson designed the font family Convection for use in the branding and user-interface of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console. Matteson also designed the user-interface font used in Microsoft’s Zune music player.^[10]

In 2007 software maker Red Hat released the open-source Liberation fonts family designed by Matteson. Also in 2007, Matteson designed the Droid family of fonts^[11] included in the Android mobile-phone platform supported by the Open Handset Alliance.

In 2010, Monotype acquired Ascender, bringing Matteson back to Monotype.^[12] During his time at Monotype, he was Creative Type Director^[13] and created many custom typefaces for worldwide clients including Toyota,^[14] Barnes & Noble, Motorola, Google, Microsoft, Rogers Communications, John Deere, Quicken and others.^[15] Human Machine Interface design was a focus for Monotype at the time and Matteson worked with multiple automotive clients.^[16] In 2014, Matteson performed legibility studies with MIT’s AgeLab to research the impact of choice of typeface on driver safety.^[17]

Matteson left Monotype in 2020 to found his own company, Matteson Typographics.^[18] His typeface Aptos became the new default font for Microsoft Office in 2024 (announced 2023), after being initially introduced in 2021 as one of several candidate fonts.^[19] Since 2015, Matteson has been a typography and letterpress instructor at The Book Arts League^[20] in Boulder, Colorado. In 2025, Matteson was appointed as the 2025–27 Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Graphic Arts at RIT.^[21]

Matteson has a deep appreciation for the work of Frederic Goudy and many of his releases from Matteson Typographics are modern interpretations of Goudy’s lesser-known typefaces.^[22]

Google Easter egg: If a user searches “Open Sans” or “Steve Matteson” in Google’s search engine, it will change the search results to the Open Sans font.