Linotype

Originally an American company, formed in 1886 to market the linecaster invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler[?], Mergenthaler Linotype became the world's leading manufacturer of book and newspaper printing equipment. Only the US-English Monotype[?] seriously challenged it outside America in book production.

Linotype GmbH, the German office of the company, was to become the dominant offshoot. Through a relationship with the typefoundry D. Stempel AG (a company that was gradually acquired entirely), many of the 20th century's best type designs became its best-known - designs such as Optima and Palatino.

The company, as so many in the printing industry, endured a complex post-war history, during which printing technology went through two revolutions - first moving to phototypesetting[?], then to digital[?].

Now called Linotype Library, it is a subsidiary of the printing manufacturer and former rival, Heidelberg. The historic printing machinery being little more than museum pieces, the modern Linotype assets consist of a large library of type designs and trademarks, many the result of its large number of acquisitions, which it exploits by manufacturing digital fonts[?]. It frequently brings out new designs from established and new type designers.

see also Linotype machine

External Links

• Linotype Library (http://www.fontexplorer.com/)
• Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (http://www.heidelberg.com/)