FontShop was founded in Berlin in 1989 by Erik Spiekermann and Joan Spiekermann, who were then husband and wife, and Neville Brody. FontShop was the first font reseller in digital type history.[1] There are four independent FontShops in Austria, Benelux, Germany, and the USA.
FSI FontShop International is licensor for the five FontShops. FontShop USA, based in San Francisco, is owned by FSI; all other FontShops are separate, independent companies concentrating on their own markets. While FSI produces typefaces as a foundry (FontFont typeface library, e.g. FF DIN, FF Dax, and FF Meta) and publishes FontBook, the FontShops work as resellers of FSI’s FontFonts but also of fonts from 100 other foundries.
FontShop Germany organises the annual European design conferences TYPO Berlin since 1995 and since 2011 TYPO London.
In 2008, FontShop also published a web-based font editor called FontStruct.