Monotype typefaces

Monotype fonts were developed by the Monotype company. This name has been used by three firms. Two of them had their roots in "hot metal" or lead type in the printing industry. They could not adapt when the market changed as computer, offset and photographic systems became dominant. These were

A third firm produces fonts for computer use:

The latter firm is in a sense the successor to the English Monotype factory. It has the rights to the original designs, and later obtained rights to many more designs from other sources. The remains of the production archive and what is left of the machines are at the Type Museum in London, England. There the original matrices can still be accessed and parts of the old machines ordered. The collection itself is the property of the British Science Museum. The survival of the Type Museum is threatened since the building is no longer owned by the Science Museum, is in a very poor state of repair, and the new owner intends other uses for the property.

The first two firms mentioned above produced a long list of fonts, which were identified by names and serial numbers. That type design eventually acquired a very good name and the "Monotype" brand was synonymous with high quality and reliability.

In their name much typographic research on historical character designs from the early years of typography has been carried out. Many of the letters were produced as "revivals" , including characters in Garamond, Baskerville, Bodoni, Bembo, Caslon and many other typefaces.

The major difference between the two firms is that the American fonts do not match the English fonts. Letters with the same name had in most cases a different designer, and their appearance and implementation differ. The identification numbers do not all correspond.

The matrices of the two firms also differ in terms of depth, the image inside the matrix, implementation, and size. For example, the American matrices are shallower by 0.025  mm (0.010   inch), and consequently the interior of American foundry moulds need to be higher to produce characters with a type height of 23.3  mm (0.918   inch). This was one of many measures taken by the two Monotype companies to divide the world market between themselves. For example, the Americans served the Americas and the Canadian markets. The British company, The Monotype Corporation Ltd. in Salfords, had many customers in India, Africa, and Asia. For these countries many non-Latin typefaces were created for printing in Hebrew, Javanese, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Thai, and other languages.

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