Type foundry

A type foundry is a company that designs and/or distributes typefaces. Originally, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Monotype machines designed to be printed on 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 another foundry. Type foundries may also provide custom type design services.

In England, type foundries began when William Caxton introduced the printing press. Thereafter the City of London became a major centre for the industry, until recent times 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 were in their heyday. The St Bride Printing Library in the City of London encourages wider public interest in the remarkable history of typefounding for the printed book and newspaper.

Corporate type foundries

* Adobe Type, a division of Adobe Systems Inc.
* International Typeface Corporation (ITC)
* Letraset
* Bitstream Inc.
* Linotype
* Monotype Corporation

Large type foundries

* American Type Founders (Kingsley/ATF)
* Ascender Corporation
* Berthold
* Elsner+Flake
* Emigre
* Font Bureau
* FontFont, a division of FontShop International
* Hoefler & Frere-Jones (H&FJ)
* House Industries
* Paratype
* T26
* URW++ (URW)

Independent type foundries

* 2Rebels
* Aerotype
* Apply Interactive
* Astygmatic One-Eye
* Atomic Media
* Baseline Fonts
* Blambot
* Cape Arcona Type Foundry
* Chank Diesel
* Characters Font Foundry
* Comicraft
* Crazy diamond design
* Cubanica
* Dalton Maag
* Discourse Type
* DSType
* Emtype Foundry
* Feliciano Type Foundry
* Fewell Foundry
* Fontcraft
* Fonthead Design
* Fontosaurus
* Fountain
* Galapagos Design Group
* GarageFonts
* The Font Diner
* JY&A Fonts
* Identikal
* insigne Design
* Larabie Fonts/Typodermic
* LettError
* Lineto
* Misprinted Type
* MVB
* OurType
* P22 Type Foundry
* Psy/Ops
* Sandoll Communications
* Scriptorium Fonts
* SelfBuild Type Foundry
* Stone Type Foundry
* Storm Type Foundry
* Sudtipos
* Suitcase Type Foundry
* Test Pilot Collective
* The Type Fetish
* Thirstype/Village
* Typeco
* Typotheque
* Underware
* Zang-O-Fonts
* WC Fonts

pecialty type foundries

* Punchcut ( [http://www.punchcut.com/ Punchcut.com] ) - Distributors of typefaces for handheld screens (mobile phones)

Defunct type foundries

* American Type Founders
* Barnhart Brothers & Spindler
* Charles Reed & Sons
* Grafotechna
* Pouchée and Jennings
* VEB Typoart

Type distributors/vendors

* Font Mesa (remastered)
* Fonts.com (Monotype Corporation)
* FontHaus
* FontShop
** Nick's Fonts
* MyFonts
* Phil's Fonts
* type.co.uk (Fontworks UK Ltd)
* Veer

External links

* [http://www.creativepro.com/eservices/fonts/5.html Creativepro.com – Commercial Foundries list]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links/links.aspx?type=foundries&part=1 Microsoft Typography – All foundries and font related product vendors]
* [http://www.typophile.com/wiki/Foundries Typophile: Type Foundry List]
* [http://www.myfonts.com/foundry/all.html MyFonts: Font Foundries]
* [http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/vendors.html Luc Devroye: Font vendors]