Type foundry

A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood 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.

The German coat of arms for a type-founders' guild (or "Schriftgießer" in German)

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.[1] Until William Caslon (1692–1766), however, English type generally had a poor reputation with the best type imported from Holland.[1]

Only after Caslon had established his foundry in Chiswell Street, did the City of London 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

Large form type foundries


Independent type foundries
  • 2Rebels
  • Adam Ladd
  • Aerotype
  • Alit Design
  • Antipixel
  • Alphabet Soup Type Founders
  • Altered Ego Fonts
  • Apply Interactive
  • Archetype Typography
  • Arty Type
  • Astygmatic One-Eye
  • Atomic Media
  • Austie Bost Fonts
  • Baseline Fonts
  • Blambot
  • Bogstav
  • Bold Monday
  • Borutta
  • Branding With Type
  • Brittney Murphy Design
  • Canada Type
  • Cape Arcona Type Foundry
  • Castle Type
  • Chank Diesel
  • Characters Font Foundry
  • Comicraft
  • Commercial Type
  • Colophon Foundry
  • Corradine Fonts
  • Crazy diamond design
  • Cubanica
  • Cultivated Mind
  • Dalton Maag
  • Discourse Type
  • Darcy Baldwin Fonts
  • Darden Studio
  • Darren Scott Typographics
  • Deartype
  • Dennis Ortiz-Lopez Type Foundry
  • Dharma Type
  • DOANG FONT
  • DSType
  • Emily Lime Design
  • Emtype Foundry
  • Exljbris Font Foundry
  • Fabrizio Schiavi Design
  • Fatype
  • Feliciano Type Foundry
  • Fewell Foundry
  • Futora Foundry
  • Fontcraft
  • Font Diner
  • Fontforecast
  • FontHaus
  • Fonthead Design
  • Fontosaurus
  • Fountain
  • Galapagos Design Group
  • GarageFonts
  • Gerald Gallo Fonts
  • Gradient
  • Grilli Type
  • GRIN3 (Nowak)
  • Hanoded Fonts
  • Harried Type
  • Hipopotam Studio
  • Hoftype
  • HvD Fonts
  • JY&A Fonts
  • Identikal
  • Indian Type Foundry
  • insigne Design
  • Intellecta Design
  • Jeff Levine Fonts
  • Jeremy Tankard Typography
  • JOEBOB Graphics
  • JTD Type
  • Katatrad
  • Kimberly Geswein Fonts
  • Kimmy Design
  • KOMETA
  • Kostic Type Foundry
  • KRK FONT TYPE
  • Kustomtype
  • Lazydogs Typefoundry
  • La Boite Graphique
  • Larabie Fonts/Typodermic
  • Leandro Ribeiro Machado
  • LettError
  • Letters from Sweden
  • LiebeFonts
  • Lineto
  • MAC Rhino Fonts [MRF]
  • Magpie Paper Works
  • Majestype
  • Mark Simonson Studio
  • Mika Melvas
  • Milieu Grotesque
  • Misprinted Type
  • MVB Fonts
  • Monokrom
  • Mostardesign
  • Nick's Fonts
  • Nicky Laatz
  • Nikolas Type
  • Nouvelle Noire Type Foundry
  • Okay Type
  • OurType
  • Outside the Line
  • Pangram
  • Parachute
  • PintassilgoPrints
  • Pizzadude.dk
  • Playtype
  • P22 Type Foundry
  • PSY/OPS Type Foundry
  • Radomir Tinkov
  • Resistenza Type Foundry
  • Rodrigo Typo
  • Rosetta Type
  • Sandoll Communications
  • Schizotype Fonts
  • Scriptorium Fonts
  • SelfBuild Type Foundry
  • Stone Type Foundry
  • Storm Type Foundry
  • Sudtipos
  • Suitcase Type Foundry
  • Test Pilot Collective
  • The Enschedé Font Foundry
  • The Type Fetish
  • Thirstype/Village
  • TIGHTYPE
  • Tour De Force Font Foundry
  • Typeco
  • Typerepublic (Andreu Balius)
  • TypeTogether
  • TypeType
  • Typia Nesia
  • Typofonderie / formerly Porchez Typofonderie
  • typographies.fr
  • Typotheque
  • Underware
  • W Foundry
  • Webfont Foundry
  • WC Fonts
  • WhiteCrow Designs
  • Zang-O-Fonts

Specialty type foundries

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
  • Rainer Gerstenberg (ex Schriftenservice D. Stempel)

Defunct (historic) type foundries

Type distributors/vendors

References
  1. "Industries: Printing | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-20.
  2. "fontbros.com". fontbros.com.
  3. "fontever.com". fontever.com.
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