Robert Norton (1929–2001) was a British publisher, consultant on printing and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
executive.
The son of the children's author
Mary Norton, he established the company Photoscript, a
phototypesetting
Phototypesetting is a method of setting type. It uses photography to make columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper.
It has been made obsolete by the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing (digital typesetting).
Th ...
technology company, before moving into
digital font
A computer font is implemented as a digital data file containing a set of graphically related glyphs. A computer font is designed and created using a font editor. A computer font specifically designed for the computer screen, and not for pri ...
technology.
[The truth about Westminster (the font!)](_blank)
Mercer Design] He later moved to Seattle to take up a position as an executive at Microsoft, advising on fonts to be included with Windows.
Many of the release notes accompanying Microsoft typefaces were written by him.
While in Washington, he self-published the book ''Types Best Remembered/Types Best Forgotten'' on good and bad choices of font.
He married Abigail Scully in the United States and had four children.
After retiring from Microsoft in 1997, he ran his
fine press brand, the Parsimony Press, in
Huntspill,
Somerset.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Robert
1929 births
2001 deaths
English typographers and type designers
Microsoft employees
People educated at Christ's Hospital