The Monotype name has been used by three firms.
1. Lanston Monotype Cooperation, founded by Tolbert Lanston in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), in 1887. In 1896 Lanston patented
the first hot metal typesetting machine, known as the Monotype, see
Monotype
System and Monotype
typefaces. Associated designers of note include Frederic
W. Goudy and Sol Hess.
Licenses for the Lanston type library have been acquired by P22 in
2004, see Lanston
Type Company.
2. Monotype Corporation Limited, set up as a branch in London
(UK) in 1897 under the name Lanston Monotype Corporation Ltd. Later
an independent company based in Salfords. “Lanston” was dropped
from the name in May 1931. Key executives included historian and
adviser Stanley
Morison, publicity manager Beatrice Warde,
engineering expert Frank
Hinman Pierpont, and draughtsman Fritz
Stelzer. Associated designers include Eric Gill
and Berthold
Wolpe. Went into receivership in 1992.
3. Monotype Imaging Inc. The successor to Monotype Corporation
Ltd. was acquired by Agfa-Compugraphic in 1999 and renamed Agfa
Monotype. Acquired ITC in 2000 and
launched Fonts.com as font distribution website in 2001. Acquired
by TA Associates, a private equity firm based in Boston in 2004,
and incorporated as Monotype Imaging. Acquired by HGGC, another
private equity firm in 2019. Monotype acquired Linotype GmbH
(2006), More…
The Monotype name has been used by three firms.
1. Lanston Monotype Cooperation, founded by Tolbert Lanston in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), in 1887. In 1896 Lanston patented the first hot metal typesetting machine, known as the Monotype, see Monotype System and Monotype typefaces. Associated designers of note include Frederic W. Goudy and Sol Hess. Licenses for the Lanston type library have been acquired by P22 in 2004, see Lanston Type Company.
2. Monotype Corporation Limited, set up as a branch in London (UK) in 1897 under the name Lanston Monotype Corporation Ltd. Later an independent company based in Salfords. “Lanston” was dropped from the name in May 1931. Key executives included historian and adviser Stanley Morison, publicity manager Beatrice Warde, engineering expert Frank Hinman Pierpont, and draughtsman Fritz Stelzer. Associated designers include Eric Gill and Berthold Wolpe. Went into receivership in 1992.
3. Monotype Imaging Inc. The successor to Monotype Corporation Ltd. was acquired by Agfa-Compugraphic in 1999 and renamed Agfa Monotype. Acquired ITC in 2000 and launched Fonts.com as font distribution website in 2001. Acquired by TA Associates, a private equity firm based in Boston in 2004, and incorporated as Monotype Imaging. Acquired by HGGC, another private equity firm in 2019. Monotype acquired Linotype GmbH (2006), China Type Design Ltd. (2006), Ascender Corp. (2010), Bitstream Inc. incl. the major font distributor MyFonts (2012), the other major font distributor FontShop incl. the FontFont library (2014), Fontsmith (2020), URW (2020), Hoefler & Co. (2021), and Milieu Grotesque (2023).
