The History of Monotype Imaging: 2004 - Present
2004 – Agfa Monotype releases Japanese fonts and text rendering capabilities that support Japan’s ARIB (Association of Radio Industries and Businesses) data coding and transmission specification for digital broadcasting.
Agfa Monotype licenses the Albany®, Cumberland® and Thorndale® families to Red Hat Inc., one of the world’s top suppliers of open source technologies for the enterprise.
The Neo Sans™ and Neo Tech™ typefaces, designed by Agfa Monotype’s Sebastian Lester, make their debut in the Monotype® Library.
MicroType® Express font compression technology is included in the latest MPEG-4 specification.
Agfa Monotype releases the new custom-designed Expert Sans™ typeface family to Barclays, one of the largest financial services groups in the UK.
2005 - The Eight Golden Rules of font software licensing are produced in an effort to make font licensing easier to understand for end users. Monotype Imaging works alongside Berthold Types, Dalton Maag, Fontsmith, Identikal, Microsoft and Shinn Type to bring forth a single source of information to help end users manage their font assets.
Monotype Imaging launches a new downloadable font counting tool to help businesses discover how many fonts are stored on their computers. Monotype Imaging’s Fontwise® Web site and the Business Software Alliance’s Software Asset Management Web site host the free tool.
Typefaces from the Monotype Library of more than 1,300 typefaces become available in the OpenType® font format.
2006 - Monotype Imaging becomes the exclusive provider of Saffron rendering technology, setting the course for developing enhanced text rendering capabilities that meet increasingly sophisticated text requirements.
CD versions of the OpenType-based Monotype Library, the Adobe® Type Collection and the ITC® Library are introduced. The Monotype Library CD contains 1,496 typefaces, including 190 new typefaces and 574 that are exclusive to the collection. The OpenType version of the Adobe collection contains more than 2,900 typefaces on one CD, including more than 400 that are new to the collection. The ITC release features more than 1,650 typefaces in 1,320 OpenType files on one CD. One hundred new typefaces are included, in addition to more than 650 exclusive designs.
Monotype Imaging licenses its iType® font engine and WorldType® Layout Engine to QUALCOMM for its BREW® solution. The new technologies, which first become available to handset manufacturers, offer a standard framework to support scalable fonts and multilingual text layout capabilities.
Monotype Imaging debuts theme-based, scalable fonts engineered for optimal display quality on mobile phones. The fonts are later branded as ESQ® (Enhanced Screen Quality) Mobile fonts.
Monotype Imaging acquires Linotype GmbH, home of the Linotype® Library, which includes such widely used typefaces such as the Helvetica®, Frutiger® and Optima® designs. Linotype and its employees remain in Bad Homburg, Germany, and begin operations as a wholly owned subsidiary of Monotype Imaging.
Monotype Imaging acquires China Type Design Limited, a typeface design and production company based in Hong Kong. As a wholly owned subsidiary, China Type is chartered to help lead expansion into Asian consumer electronics and printer markets which require scalable, multilingual text solutions.
Monotype Imaging releases version 3.0 of its iType font engine and introduces the company’s patent-pending SmartHint™ technology, which enables the clear display of scalable East Asian text. WorldType Layout Engine version 2.2 also makes its debut. The release rounds out support for all the major written languages of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
More than 100,000 font products are available for the first time from Monotype Imaging’s Fonts.com™ store. Products range from single fonts to bundled packages in standard PostScript®, TrueType® and OpenType formats for Macintosh® and Windows® platforms.
Monotype Imaging’s Fonts.com store launches eight payment options and 13 currency selections.
2007 - Douglas J. Shaw is promoted from senior vice president to president and chief executive officer, succeeding Robert M. Givens, who retires. Givens remains as chairman of Monotype Imaging’s board of directors.
The iType font engine is chosen as a reference component to ship within the Symbian™ operating system.
Among the typefaces released into the continuously expanding Monotype Library is the Soho™ family, available in the OpenType Pro format and consisting of 40 fonts in various weights and widths. The Soho design was created by Monotype Imaging’s Sebastian Lester.
Monotype Imaging announces a multilingual collaborative project with Microsoft which results in new and extended fonts for the Microsoft 2007 Office solution and Windows Vista™ operating system.
Monotype Imaging unveils a suite of printer driver kits that support the Microsoft XML Paper Specification (XPS).
Monotype Imaging makes its text rendering technologies available to all QUALCOMM BREW operators, handset manufacturers, publishers, developers and content creators. In addition, the company introduces fonts available as BREW extensions, extending choice for stylistic, scalable type to enrich mobile offerings such as games, applications, services, user interfaces, advertising and multimedia content. Monotype Imaging’s fonts become deployable to consumers over-the-air through BREW operators.
Monotype Imaging begins trading on July 25 as “TYPE” on the Nasdaq Global Market Exchange.
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