Type foundry
A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before desktop publishing, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Monotype machines designed to be used with letterpress printers. Today's digital type foundries accumulate and distribute typefaces (typically as digitized fonts) created by type designers, who may either be freelancers operating their own independent foundry, or employed by another foundry. Type foundries may also provide custom type design services.
In England, type foundries began in 1476, when William Caxton introduced the printing press. Thereafter the City of London became a major centre for the industry, until recent times when famous metal-based printing districts such as Fleet Street came to the close of their era. The industry was particularly important in Victorian times, when education became available to all due to the new school boards, and firms such as Charles Reed & Sons were in their heyday. The St Bride Printing Library in the City of London encourages wider public interest in the history of type founding for the printed book and newspaper.
Modern corporate type foundries
- Adobe Type, a division of Adobe Systems
- Apple Inc.
- Letraset
- Monotype Imaging
- Ascender Corporation a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging
- Bitstream a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging
- FontShop a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging, Located in Germany
- International Typeface Corporation (ITC) a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging
- Linotype GmbH a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging, Located in Germany
Large form type foundries
- Berthold Type Foundry
- Elsner+Flake
- Emigre
- Font Bureau
- Hoefler & Co. (H&Co)
- House Industries
- Microsoft Typography, a division of Microsoft Corp
- Neufville Typefoundry (Fundición Tipográfica Neufville)
Independent type foundries
- 2Rebels
- Aerotype
- Alphabet Soup Type Founders
- Altered Ego Fonts
- Apply Interactive
- Archetype Typography
- Astygmatic One-Eye
- Atomic Media
- Baseline Fonts
- Blambot
- Bold Monday
- Canada Type
- Cape Arcona Type Foundry
- Chank Diesel
- Characters Font Foundry
- Comicraft
- Commercial Type
- Crazy diamond design
- Cubanica
- Dalton Maag
- Discourse Type
- Darden Studio
- Darren Scott Typographics
- Dennis Ortiz-Lopez Type Foundry
- DOANG FONT
- DSType
- Emtype Foundry
- Fabrizio Schiavi Design
- Fatype
- Feliciano Type Foundry
- Fewell Foundry
- Futora Foundry
- Fontcraft
- Font Diner
- FontHaus
- Fonthead Design
- Fontosaurus
- Fountain
- Galapagos Design Group
- GarageFonts
- Greater Albion Typefounders
- HIDAYAH WORLD WIDE TYPE
- JY&A Fonts
- Identikal
- Indian Type Foundry
- insigne Design
- Kimmy Design
- KRK FONT TYPE
- Larabie Fonts/Typodermic
- LettError
- Lineto
- MAC Rhino Fonts [MRF]
- Misprinted Type
- |MVB
- Nick's Fonts
- Okay Type
- OurType
- Parachute
- PIntassilgoPrints
- Playtype
- P22 Type Foundry
- PSY/OPS Type Foundry
- Sandoll Communications
- Scriptorium Fonts
- SelfBuild Type Foundry
- Stone Type Foundry
- Storm Type Foundry
- Sudtipos
- Suitcase Type Foundry
- Test Pilot Collective
- The Type Fetish
- Thirstype/Village
- Tour De Force Font Foundry
- Typeco
- TypeTogether
- Typofonderie / formerly Porchez Typofonderie
- typographies.fr
- Typotheque
- Underware
- Zang-O-Fonts
- Webfont Foundry
- WC Fonts
- WhiteCrow Designs
Specialty type foundries
- Punchcut — Distributors of typefaces for handheld screens (mobile phones)
- The League of Moveable Type — The first open-source type foundry
Active metal type foundries (letterpress)
- Quaker City Type Foundry
- Offizin Parnassia Type Foundry
- The Dale Guild Type Foundry
- Mackenzie & Harris Type Foundry
- Skyline Type Foundry
- Bell Type and Rule Company - a 78-year-old type foundry.
- Rainer Gerstenberg (ex Schriftenservice D. Stempel)
Defunct (historic) type foundries
- American Type Founders
- Barnhart Brothers & Spindler
- Bauer Type
- Binny & Ronaldson
- Bruce's New York Type Foundry
- Charles Reed & Sons
- Deberny & Peignot
- Grafotechna
- Gujarati Type Foundry
- John Haddon & Co
- Inland Type Foundry
- Louis Pouchée
- Mackellar, Smiths & Jordan
- Missouri-Central Type Foundry, Wichita (purchased by Typefounders of Chicago in 1970s)
- Stephenson Blake
- St Louis Type Foundry
- VEB Typoart
Type distributors/vendors
- Fontever[1]
- FontHaus
- Fonts.com (Monotype Corporation)
- FontShop
- MyFonts (Bitstream Inc.)
- Phil's Fonts
- type.co.uk (Fontworks UK Ltd)
- Typekit
- Veer (Corbis)
References
- ↑ "fontever.com". fontever.com.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Type foundries. |
- Creativepro.com – Commercial Foundries list
- Microsoft Typography – All foundries and font related product vendors
- Typophile: Type Foundry List
- MyFonts: Font Foundries
- Luc Devroye: Font vendors