You may not know the name, but trust me: if you use the web you've had reason to thank Virginia Howlett. Why? Because she was Microsoft's Program Manager in Typography, working with Matthew Carter to design what is still the best web font, Verdana.

In addition, if you've ever used Windows in the last 9 years, you've come across her groundbreaking work on User Interface Design. Windows 95 was the operating system that brought personal computing to the mass market.

In this interview we discuss Verdana, Win '95 and what Bill Gates is really like ...

Interview with Virginia Howlett, mother of Verdana.

You may not know the name, but trust me: if you use the web you've had reason to thank Virginia Howlett. Why? Because she was Microsoft's Program Manager in Typography, working with Matthew Carter to design what is still the best web font, Verdana.

In addition, if you've ever used Windows in the last 9 years, you've come across her groundbreaking work on User Interface Design. Windows 95 was the operating system that brought personal computing to the mass market.

Virginia in her studio. Copyright © Virginia Howlett

DMX: It's probably fair to say that Microsoft's Internet Explorer hasn't earned them the undying love of web developers. But something that's proved an unqualified success is the Verdana font. Can you give us an overview of why this was developed and how the team worked together?

VH: Verdana – well that's a long story.... Back in the days of Windows 3.1, our interface font was MS Sans Serif: a bitmap font whose characters had been drawn by an early Microsoft developer. It wasn't bad, but it only came in 2 sizes and it wasn't scalable. I felt we should create a TrueType interface font, which would be scalable, designed specifically for readability at text sizes.

This was not a popular idea. Even my team of designers objected - they liked MS Sans Serif, proving that everyone prefers the familiar, even when it's "sub-optimal". But my managers approved, the Typography group understood, and I can be very determined.

Microsoft had a long working relationship with Monotype, and the people in our Typography group knew Matthew Carter well. The world of typography is very small. I spearheaded a project to hire Matthew Carter to design a TrueType font designed for maximum readability at small sizes on the screen. The Typography group contacted Monotype and hired Tom Rickner to hand-hint the font (which is a very exacting kind of programming). We started meeting with Matthew, and he started proposing ideas. I ended up as a sort of Art Director on the project. After I took a 5-month leave of absence to write my book (Visual Interface Design for Windows), I came back to a job as a Program Manager in the Typography group, and saw it through.

The working process was seamless, because of the excellence of both Matthew Carter and Tom Rickner of Monotype. After they were in full swing, all I did was review the beautiful work they produced. And the Typography team was excellent too. Vincent Connare, a type designer in the group, later designed another wonderful screen font - Trebuchet - which is very good, and markedly different from Verdana.

Matthew and I also worked on Georgia, a serif font designed for the screen. Later, MS Typography and Matthew Carter went on to create Tahoma, which is used in XP as an interface font. Tahoma is essentially Verdana condensed horizontally. Verdana's great readability at text sizes is partly due to the space within the characters, but this gives it a long line length. You can fit more text in the same space with Tahoma, which is helpful for dialog boxes.

DMX: Of all typographers out there, Matthew Carter is probably the best known. What was he like to work with?

VH: Matthew was great to work with - charming, insightful, and a brilliant designer. What can I say - he's the best in the world, in my opinion. And, a real pleasure to work with.

DMX: How do you "test" a typeface?

VH: Well, you test it like any other piece of code. TrueType fonts are highly programmed - because the TrueType technology is very technical, the typographer has elaborate control of myriad details in the characters, and how they scale.

We did fund two universities to do research studies of readability & legibility of type on computer screens - and confirmed that readability is very hard to quantify. Legibility is somewhat easier to define.