Monotype Typography

The Monotype Corporation, based in Redhill, Surrey, was an independent English company that originally shared patents with the Lanston Monotype Company in Philadelphia. In the first half of the twentieth century F.H. Pierpont and Stanley Morison built up the best type library of its time, and Monotype came to be leaders in European book printing. After the Second World War Monotype continued to offer printing machines, entering the photocomposition era with the Monophoto in 1955, and pioneering laser technology in printing with the LaserComp in 1976. In 1992 the company was split up: the hardware side was purchased by the IPA Group; the type department, having produced the superb TrueType fonts in Windows 3.1 with Microsoft, continued as Monotype Typography. In July 1998 Agfa acquired Monotype Typography and integrated it into its own operations.