Monotype Corporation

Monotype is one of the most important companies in the history of typography. First it built the machines that for decades set the books of half the world; then it commissioned and produced some of the most widely used typefaces of the twentieth century; today it owns one of the largest libraries of digital fonts.

The Monotype machine

The Lanston Monotype Machine Company was founded in Philadelphia in 1887 by Tolbert Lanston. Its machine set text by casting each individual letter in molten metal: a mistake could be corrected by replacing a single character, while the rival Linotype cast a whole line in one bar. This is why Monotype became the machine for books and quality printing, and Linotype the one for newspapers. Around 1897 the Lanston Monotype Corporation, the “Monotype Corporation”, was set up in London, and in 1899 it built a factory at Salfords, in Surrey.

Morison, Warde and the typefaces

Between the wars the British company, led by William Isaac Burch, gathered decisive figures: the typographic historian Stanley Morison, its typographic adviser, and the publicity manager Beatrice Warde. As well as reviving historical typefaces, Monotype commissioned new designs that became classics: the Gill Sans of the sculptor Eric Gill, Perpetua and Times New Roman, created for The Times newspaper.

From metal to digital

With the arrival of phototypesetting, hot-metal composition went into crisis. Monotype tried its own photographic systems and then the Lasercomp laser typesetter, but above all it survived by selling its typefaces: many of the fonts installed on Microsoft computers, such as Arial, are Monotype's. After several changes of ownership it bought its historic rival Linotype in 2006, followed by ITC, Bitstream, FontShop and Hoefler & Co.; today it is based in Woburn, Massachusetts, and holds the rights to families such as Helvetica, Optima, Palatino and DIN.

Sources

• Wikipedia – Monotype Imaging