Ascender Corporation was a digital typeface foundry and software development company in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

Another founding partner of Ascender, Tom Rickner, specializes in the technical nuances of digital typography, the production of non-Latin scripts and TrueType font hinting.

He has also been involved in the design and production of many typefaces created for the digital environment including Georgia, Graphite, Meiryo, Nina, Tahoma, Tekton, and Verdana.

Pericles Pro is based on the work of Robert Foster who created the original designs for American Type Founders in 1934.

Also in 2006 Ascender introduced a software product for mobile phones – the Ascender Personality Kit, which combined ring tones, wallpaper backgrounds, themes, and fonts into packaged sets that automated the process of acquiring and applying multiple components for users to personalize their Windows Mobile phone.

[2] In 2007 Ascender executed a license to distribute the Microsoft scalable font engine that supports hinting technology to enhance on-screen legibility.

Ascender conducted numerous typographic-related research projects including a study on the typefaces that appear on the front pages of America's top daily newspapers.