Monotype buys Linotype

On 2 August 2006 Monotype and Linotype issued a joint press release announcing the purchase of Linotype by Monotype Imaging. Many people in the industry, including ourselves, were surprised by this news, as no-one had any inkling that Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG were actively seeking to sell Linotype. In truth, we would have liked to have a stab at buying this type library. But as it is, Monotype has now established itself as the largest type library containing fonts from the original Monotype, ITC and Linotype libraries.

But what does that mean for Dalton Maag and its clients, and type users in general? We are assured that it is business as usual. That means that our exclusive contracts allowing us to modify Linotype fonts are honoured for the time being. We are also assured that we can continue to assist our clients with font licensing issues and help to negotiate the best and most flexible font licensing deal possible. Based on our track record with Monotype we are confident that we will continue to provide type solutions with fonts from the Monotype and ITC libraries. In any case, it is always worth contacting Dalton Maag if you have need for font modifications on a font from one of the above libraries.

In the short term we do not think that the type user will notice any difference as it will take time to align the two businesses and its products. But the long term will probably be to the user’s advantage. Unified character set standards and End User License Agreements (EULAs) are a clear benefit to the user. The might that Monotype now carries, by sheer number of fonts in its library, may have an impact on the way fonts are produced and licensed by smaller libraries and individual type designers. This would resolve many of the questions and support queries we face in our business. Of course, the disadvantage is that competition is now largely relegated to small type developers such as us. Whilst we are able to create innovative typeface design, it is much harder for us to find the resources to bring new fonts successfully into the market. The combined Monotype/ITC/Linotype libraries now contain all the classic fonts such as Helvetica, Frutiger, Bembo, Gill Sans, Sabon to name but a few.

Dalton Maag Exhibits

It’s hard to believe how quickly time passes; Dalton Maag has been in the business of type for 15 years so far. During this time we have had the opportunity to be part of some fantastic projects creating type designs and font solutions for some of the world’s best know brands. When we viewed all of the material for our latest catalogue “Work in Progress” we thought that it would look great to not only show type in its usual book format but make bring it to people in form of an exhibition. With the help of our friends at Mode and architect firm 6A we created type fit for the best of galleries. The exhibition had its first showing in Zurich and St Gallen, Switzerland.

We will open the show on Thursday, 19 October 2006, from 18:30 to 21:00 at Leagas Delaney, 1-2 Alfred Place, London, WC1E 7EB. We hope to see as many of our clients, supporters and friends as possible.

While London is obviously an important showcase for us we haven’t forgotten our overseas contacts. If you are interested in hosting the exhibition in your area please contact either Bruno Maag or Angela Gilroy to discuss the details.

Future Releases

In recent months we have brought you new font families and updated a number of our existing fonts to our new internal specifications. Summer holidays, moving offices and a lot of work have delayed our proposed release dates for new fonts. One of the biggest projects we have been working on for the last year or so is the update to our InterFace font family. This will be expanded to our new Basic character set. In addition it will also have support for Greek and Cyrillic, and will feature Small Caps and matching symbols. Lexia is also a font that will be updated. Not only will the existing fonts feature our Basic character set, we have expanded the font family to altogether twelve weights/styles. We’re expecting to release both these font families within the next six months.

There are new fonts on the horizon too, including Tondo, a rounded sans that can easily compete with all the existing fonts.

Besides the Dalton Maag Exclusives we still carry the fonts from the Linotype Library. If neither of these two libraries fit what you are looking for, you may want to consider our Synopsis service, or even have a custom font created. If you would like to know more about these services please get in touch.