Gerard Unger was born at Arnhem, Netherlands, 1942. He studied graphic design, typography and type design from 1963–’67 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. He teaches as visiting Professor at The University of Reading, UK, Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam and since September 2006 he is Professor of Typography at the University of Leiden. A freelance designer since 1975 he has designed stamps, coins, magazines, newspapers, books, logos, corporate identities, and annual reports but he is best known for his typefaces, several of which have become internationally famous and extensively used. His typefaces include Hollander (1983), Flora (1984), Swift (1984-86), Swift 2.0 (1996), Amerigo (1986), Argo (1991), Gulliver (1993), Paradox (1998), Coranto (1999), the new sans serif Vesta (2001) and Capitolium News (2006).
In 1984 he was awarded the H.N.Werkman-prize for all his typographic work, for digital type designs in particular and for the way he reconciled technology and typographic culture. In 1988 he won the Gravisie-prize for the concept of his typeface Swift, and in 1991 he was awarded the international Maurits Enschedé-prize for all his type designs.

His book ‘Terwijl je leest’, best translated as 'While reading' was first published in 1995 and now this completely revised and reset edition has been published in Dutch by De Buitenkant. English, German, Italian and Spanish versions are in preparation and are expected in 2007.
This brilliant work attempts to explain the complex and very detailed mental process which takes place while we are reading and the very important role that type designers and typographers play in making it all possible. Recent research has shed much more insight into the mechanics of this process and Unger's revised text leads us to a much better understanding of how our eyes and brain let us interpret what we see on paper and screen.

"Lezen lijkt vanzelf te gaan, net als lopen. Het is echter een complex en zeer gedetailleerd proces. Wat gaat er tijdens lezen om in je hoofd en wat doen letterontwerpers en typografen om het lezers naar hun zin te maken?
Sinds het verschijnen van de vorige editie hebben onderzoekers het lezen verder weten te ontrafelen en het mogelijk gemaakt betere antwoorden te geven op de vragen hoe lezen in z’n werk gaat, waar lettervormen vandaan komen en hoe lezers tekst van papier en schermen verwerken met ogen en hersens. Hierdoor is dit geen tweede druk maar een compleet herziene uitgave met veel nieuwe inzichten.
Gerard Unger, die inmiddels is benoemd tot professor in de typografie aan de Universiteit van Leiden vat in dit boek veel van zijn ervaring samen en geeft aan in welke richting verder onderzoek uitgevoerd kan worden." (Uitgever's tekst)