Sumner Stone

Sumner Stone is the founder of Stone Type Foundry Inc., located on Alphabet Farm in Rumsey, California. The Foundry is a one-man band. Mr. Stone designs and manufactures the typefaces, produces and maintains the web site http://www.stonetypefoundry.com, the specimens and (occasionally) mops the floor.

Mr. Stone’s first type design, ITC Stone, is a super family which contains Serif, Sans, and Informal versions. It has recently been extended by the addition of the Humanistic Sans subfamily. Other recent designs are Numa, Magma, and Munc. His work covers a wide variety of design styles including original designs and historical revivals. He was the art director and one of the designers of the ITC Bodoni. Another super family which Mr. Stone has designed over a period of fifteen years includes the Stone Print, SFPL, and Cycles families. The many Cycles versions continue the tradition of size-specific designs from metal type. The family includes fonts for use at 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 24, and 36 point.

Stone Type Foundry also does custom type design. Clients have included both Fortune 500 companies and public institutions like universities and libraries. Mr. Stone recently finished digitizing a new typeface designed by Christopher Haanes for Cappelen Damm publishers in Norway.

Mr. Stone is also the author of many articles on typography and type design. His book credits include On Stone: The Art and Use of Typography on the Personal Computer, and Font: Sumner Stone, Calligraphy and Type Design in a Digital Age.

From 1984 to 1989 Mr. Stone was Director of Typography for Adobe Systems, Inc., Mountain View, California where he conceived and implemented Adobe’s typographic program including the Adobe Originals.

Mr. Stone has also taught calligraphy, type design and typography at various institutions. His education in the graphic arts began when he studied calligraphy with Lloyd Reynolds at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. His formal education also includes a BA in Sociology and an MA in Mathematics.