MONOTYPE® SYSTEM
LINKS FOR THE MONOTYPE® SYSTEM
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LANSTON TYPE LIBRARY
¶ HISTORICALLY there were two separate Lanston Monotype Companies. One based in Philadelphia USA and the other in England. Today the type faces, what has been digitized of them, is still offered separately. The American Monotype® Library is sold as the Lanston Type Library™ by the Lanston Type Company. / Oy Lanston Type Co. Ltd [Finland] / Gerald Giampa and his interests. The English Monotype® library is offered by AGFA/Monotype based in MA, USA.
¶ LANSTON TYPE COMPANY provided punch cutting services until January 21, 2000 when a tidal wave wiped out the letterpress department. Gerald Giampa is the current type director and controlling shareholder of the company.
¶ FREDERIC GOUDY was the Type Director of the Lanston Type Library for 29 years. This relationship was a rainbow of wealth that shone so brightly that it still reflects core culture for the printed word in America.
¶ SOL HESS was the head of Lanston's punch cutting department for most of his working career. Hess was a contributing designer in his own right designing many faces for the firm. He worked side by side with Goudy on many projects sometimes not to agree. The nature of the disagreements were philosophical and mechanical and would make for an interesting reading topic.
¶ GERALD GIAMPA cut Monotype cellular punches on a Benton Pantograph Machine. He ran various Monotype Casters for the typefoundry and composition department. These caster were, Monotype composition, Monotype Type and Rule, Monotype Sorts Casters, Monotype Strip Casters and Monotype Giant Casters.
His access to the historical Lanston's archives allowed him to become intimately familiar with the type designers, the philosophies, and the type economies of the Lanston Monotype Machine Company. Notably Frederic Goudy and Sol Hess.
His contribution has been to oversee the transition of the hot metal Monotype Type Library into a digital format.
Giampa has made a lengthy contribution to this industry. Introducing in digital format the first fonts with the long (s), long and short descenders, small capitals, italic small capitals, a full set of ligatures including fj and both lining and oldstyle figures. He invented self- tracking ligatures although is not marketing them at present. Now Giampa is pushing the industry for inclusion of optical scaling for digital fonts.
Giampa designed Bodoni 26 which was chosen as one of a member of 'The Top 100 Types of All Time' by the Type Directors' Club of New York'. Also he designed Water Garden Fleurons, He has the status as the 'Fleuron Master' and his work can be seen in many pages on this site. Also he is writing a book on the subject. The working name for the book is "Fleurons and Function".
LANSTON IS A TRADEMARK OF GERALD GIAMPA AND/OR INTERESTS. LANSTON TYPE CO. LTD. / OY LANSTON TYPE CO. LTD [FINLAND]
DIRECT HISTORICAL LINK
AGFA/MONOTYPE
ENGLISH MONOTYPE LIBRARY
¶ STANLEY MORISON was the most prominent Type Director and personality developing the English Monotype Library. Certainly he was the culture maker of the firm. Morison and Lardent of the London Times have been attributed as the designers of Times New Roman.
¶ VICTOR LARDENT, THE LONDON TIMES: Lardent directed Morison when designing Times New Roman.
¶ JOHN DREYFUS worked for English Monotype in some capacity after Morison.
We have no reports that Agafa/Monotype supports the hot metal industry directly. There is evidence they are proud of their Monotype heritage and collects on the good will of its past. But they are not resting on their laurels, this company is profit oriented and expert in many font technologies. I expect nothing but the best from the people at Monotype. It is part of the corporate culture. They have many great faces in their library.
They offer many of their former hot metal type designs in digital format.
MONOTYPE IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF AGFA/MONOTYPE
They have no affiliation with the Lanston Type Company.
MONOTYPE MATRICES
| MARLBORO MATS |
HISTORICAL DIGITAL LIBRARIES
| LANSTON TYPE LIBRARY |
| AGFA/MONOTYPE |
| LINOTYPE LIBRARY |
HOT METAL TYPE FOUNDER
| M & H (MACKENZIE & HARRIS) |
| JIM RIMMER |
FINE BOOKS
| OAK KNOLL BOOKS |
| NIJHOF & LEE |
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HOT METAL LINKS
¶ THESE LINKS are for those interested in typography. Some its' history, some its' practice and some just interested in printed materials and books. I am sure there are other reasons.
This page is in preliminary stages. The focus is hot metal type, suppliers, organizations, discussion groups and material of that nature.
MONOTYPE is a registered trademark of Agfa/Monotype. LANSTON is a trademark Gerald Giampa and his interests, the Lanston Type Company / Oy Lanston Type Co. Ltd [Finland].
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| BENTON PANTOGRAPH |
| LANSTON MONOTYPE KEYBOARD ||
| LANSTON MONOTYPE CASTER |
| LANSTON MACHINE |
| NON TYPOGRAPHICAL LINK GIAMPA |
| ROSA i TRÄSK |