A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands ...

s. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typi ...

and

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of ligni ...

typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Monotype, for 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 a foundry. Type foundries may also provide custom type design services.

England

In England, type foundries began in 1476, when William Caxton introduced the printing press, importing at least some of the type that he used in printing. Until William Caslon (1692–1766), however, English type generally had a poor reputation with the best type imported from

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...

. Only after Caslon had established his Caslon foundry in Chiswell Street, did the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

become a major centre for the industry, until the end of the 20th century 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, the printer and type founders 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 * Apple Inc. * Google LLC * Letraset * Monotype Imaging **

Ascender Corporation Ascender Corporation was a digital typeface foundry and software development company located in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village, Illinois in the United States. It was founded in 2004 by a team of software developers, typographers, and font ...

a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging ** Bitstream a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging ** FontFont 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 ** URW Type Foundry a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging, Located in Germany ** Hoefler & Co. (H&Co) a subsidiary of Monotype Imaging, located in New York City

Large form type foundries

* Berthold Type Foundry * Elsner+Flake * Emigre * Font Bureau * House Industries *

Neufville Typefoundry Fundición Tipográfica Neufville or the Neufville Typefoundry is a type foundry in Barcelona and the most important supplier of the printing industry in Spain during the 20th century. History Discovered punches and matrices testify that the orig ...

(

Fundición Tipográfica Neufville Fundición Tipográfica Neufville or the Neufville Typefoundry is a type foundry in Barcelona and the most important supplier of the printing industry in Spain during the 20th century. History Discovered punches and matrices testify that the orig ...

)

Notable independent type foundries

* Blambot * Chank Diesel * Comicraft * Dalton Maag *

Darden Studio Joshua Darden (born 1979 in Northridge, Los Angeles, California) is an American typeface designer. He published his first typeface at the age of 15, becoming according to ''Fonts In Use'' the first known African-American typeface designer. Caree ...

Larabie Fonts Raymond Larabie (born 1970) is a Canadian designer of TrueType and OpenType computer fonts. He owns Typodermic Fonts, which distributes both commercially licensed and shareware/freeware fonts. Biography and career Larabie was born in Ottawa, ...

/Typodermic * Mark Simonson Studio *

Parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...

* P22 Type Foundry * Sandoll Communications * Scriptorium Fonts * Typofonderie / formerly *

Typotheque Typotheque is a type foundry and design studio from The Hague, Netherlands that develops and markets original typefaces. In October 2009, Typotheque became the first type foundry to introduce the concept of webfonts. The typefaces sold under ...

Specialty type foundries

The League of Moveable Type
— The first

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

type foundry

Defunct (historic) type foundries

* American Type Founders * Barnhart Brothers & Spindler * Bauer Type * Binny & Ronaldson * Caslon Type Foundry * Charles Reed & Sons * Deberny & Peignot *

Grafotechna Grafotechna (Grafotechna n. p., Závod 5, Výroba písma, mosazných linek a matric) was a Czechoslovak type foundry, created in 1951. It ceased to exist after 1990. It was the only manufacturer of metal types in the former Czechoslovakia , ...

* Inland Type Foundry *

Louis Pouchée Louis John Pouchée (1782 – 15 March 1845), was a London type founder and entrepreneur. Career Pouchée is first recorded as the proprietor of Alamode Beef and Veal House (1811–1812) and Pouchée & Co Coal Merchants (1811–22), both in Holb ...

Stephenson Blake Stephenson Blake is an engineering company based in Sheffield, England. The company was active from the early 19th century as a type founder, remaining until the 1990s as the last active type foundry in Britain, since when it has diversified in ...

* VEB Typoart

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Type Foundry Publishing