Reviewing Slimbach's 2007 project Arno, font designer Mark Simonson noted that it 'almost becomes a different typeface' when italic alternates are enabled. Where in the 1990s a given typeface design might be instantiated in one or two fonts, with 200-500 glyphs, a typical new Slimbach work post-20-3000 glyphs. Since 2000, the rate of Slimbach's (and Adobe's) new typefaces has slowed, as he has taken advantage of the new linguistic and typographic capabilities offered by the OpenType format. Slimbach has described himself as being particularly interested in humanist and serif projects, calling his work on the neo-grotesque Acumin, in the Swiss modernist style, as being 'outside of the design realm I normally prefer.' More recently, Slimbach's own calligraphy formed the basis for his typeface Brioso. In 1991, he received the Prix Charles Peignot from the Association Typographique Internationale for excellence in type design. Among his early projects at Adobe were the Utopia (1988), Adobe Garamond (1989), Minion (1990) and Poetica (1992) families. He has developed many new fonts for the Adobe Originals program. Since then, he has concentrated primarily on designing typefaces for digital technology, often drawing inspiration from classical sources.

He later commented of this period that 'I wasn’t really making enough money to live on.'

Slimbach was then self-employed for two years as a freelance type designer, during which developed the two typefaces ITC Slimbach and ITC Giovanni for the International Typeface Corporation. There he received further training, not just as a type designer but also as a calligrapher. After training from 1983 to 1985, Slimbach worked as a type designer with Autologic Incorporation. This work brought him into contact with Autologic Incorporated in Newbury Park, California. After attending UCLA on an athletics scholarship, he developed an interest in graphic design and typefaces while running a small screen printshop for manufacturing posters and greeting cards. Shortly after, he moved to Southern California where he spent his childhood and his youth. Slimbach was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1956. Biography Slimbach's signature on a copy of the Arno Pro specimen. His typefaces are among those most commonly used in books.

He has won many awards for his digital typeface designs, including the rarely awarded Prix Charles Peignot from the Association Typographique Internationale, the SoTA Typography Award, and repeated TDC 2 awards from the Type Directors Club. Robert Joseph Slimbach is Principal Type Designer at Adobe, Inc., where he has worked since 1987. Goudy Award, Prix Charles Peignot, SoTA Typography Award, TDC2 Awards

Acumin pro webfont