The International Typeface Corporation (ITC) was a type manufacturer founded in New York in 1970 by Aaron Burns,

Herb Lubalin Herbert F. Lubalin (; March 17, 1918 – May 24, 1981) was an American graphic designer. He collaborated with Ralph Ginzburg on three of Ginzburg's magazines: ''Eros'', ''Fact'', and ''Avant Garde''. He designed the typeface, ITC Avant Garde ...

and

Edward Rondthaler Dr. Edward Rondthaler (June 9, 1905 – August 19, 2009) was a typographer as well as a simplified spelling champion and chairman of the American Literacy Council. He was critical to the development of SoundSpel. He was born in Bethlehem, P ...

. The company was one of the world's first type foundries to have no history in the production of

metal type In typesetting, a sort or type is a block with a typographic character etched on it, which is lined up with others to print text. In movable-type printing, the sort or type is cast from a matrix mold and assembled by hand with other sorts be ...

. It is now a wholly owned brand or subsidiary of

Monotype Imaging Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use with ...

History

The company was founded to design, license and market typefaces for filmsetting and computer set types internationally. The company issued both new

designs A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

and revivals of older or classic faces, invariably re-cut to be suitable for

digital typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random Ho ...

use and produced in families of different weights. Although it is claimed that the designers took care to preserve the style and character of the original

typefaces A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

, several ITC revivals, such as ITC Bookman and

ITC Garamond Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and bo ...

in particular, have received criticism that the end result was related in name only to the original faces. Among the company's notable type designers was Ed Benguiat, the creator of Tiffany and Benguiat fonts. ITC's revival designs frequently followed a formulary of increased

x-height upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the let ...

, multiple weights from light to ultra bold, multiple widths and unusual

ligature Ligature may refer to: * Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure ** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry * Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...

combinations, sometimes with alternate characters. Critics sometimes complain that, while the dramatically higher x-height increased legibility in smaller point sizes, in normal text sizes the extreme height of the

lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the Letter (alphabet), letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain lang ...

characters imparted a commercial, subjective voice to texts. In recent years several new revivals have been praised for showing more historical accuracy, and for not increasing the x-height to the dramatic heights of earlier ITC typeface revivals.

Fonts

*ITC

American Typewriter American Typewriter is a slab serif typeface created in 1974 by Joel Kaden and Tony Stan for International Typeface Corporation. It is based on the slab serif style of typewriters; however, unlike most true typewriter fonts, it is a proportional ...

*ITC

Anna Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 12 ...

*ITC Arecibo *ITC Arid *ITC Atelier Sans *ITC

Avant Garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

Gothic *Avenida *ITC Ballerino *ITC Barcelona *ITC Batak *ITC

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

*ITC Beesknees *

ITC Benguiat ITC Benguiat is a decorative serif typeface designed by Ed Benguiat and released by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1977. The face is loosely based upon typefaces of the Art Nouveau period but is not considered an academic reviva ...

and Benguiat Gothic *ITC Berranger Hand *ITC Better *ITC Binary *ITC Blair *ITC Blackadder *ITC Black Tulip *ITC Blaze *ITC

Bodoni Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in the late eighteenth century and frequently revived since. Bodoni's typefaces are classified as Didone or modern. Bodoni followed the ideas o ...

*ITC Bolt *ITC Bookman *ITC Bradley Hand *ITC Braganza *ITC Busorama *ITC

Caslon Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692–1766) in London, or inspired by his work. Caslon worked as an engraver of punches, the masters used to stamp the moulds or matrices used to cast metal ty ...

*ITC

Century type family Century is a family of serif type faces particularly intended for body text. The family originates from a first design, Century Roman, cut by American Type Founders designer Linn Boyd Benton in 1894 for master printer Theodore Low De Vinne, for us ...

*ITC Cerigo *ITC

Charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

*ITC

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

*ITC Chivalry *ITC Conduit *ITC Cushing *ITC Dartangnon *Data 70 *ITC Django *ITC Edwardian Script *ITC Elan *ITC Ellipse *ITC

Eras Eras is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Albert Boton and Albert Hollenstein and was released by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) in 1976. Eras is licensed by the Linotype type foundry. A distinct and curious feature of E ...

*Eras Demi ITC *ITC Esprit *ITC Fenice *ITC Flora *ITC Fontoon *ITC Forkbeard *ITC

Franklin Gothic Franklin Gothic and its related faces are a large family of sans-serif typefaces in the industrial or grotesque style developed in the early years of the 20th century by the type foundry American Type Founders (ATF) and credited to its head desi ...

*ITC

Freestyle Script Freestyle Script is an informal display script typeface that was designed by Colin Brignall in 1969 and Martin Wait in 1981, by Letraset. Freestyle Script is famously used for commercials in 1980s, birthday cards, decorative, logos and many oth ...

*ITC Friz Quadrata *ITC

Garamond Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and b ...

*ITC Gamma *Gigi *ITC Giovanni *ITC Golden Cockerel *ITC

Golden Type The Golden Type is a serif font designed by artist William Morris for his fine book printing project, the Kelmscott Press, in 1890. It is an "old-style" serif font, based on type designed by engraver and printer Nicolas Jenson in Venice around 147 ...

*ITC

Goudy Sans Goudy Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Frederic Goudy around 1929–1931 and published by Lanston Monotype. Unlike many sans-serifs, which often have an unadorned appearance with a geometric or industrial aesthetic, Goudy Sans has a more ...

*ITC Grimshaw Hand *ITC Handel Gothic *ITC Highlander *ITC Humana Sans *ITC Isadora *ITC Jokerman Hellenic *ITC Johnston *ITC Juanita *ITC Juice *ITC Kabel *ITC Kahana *ITC Keefbats *ITC Kendo *ITC Klepto *ITC Kloegirl *ITC Korigan *ITC Korinna *ITC Kristen *ITC Leawood *ITC Legacy Sans and Serif *ITC Lubalin Graph *ITC Luna *ITC Machine *ITC Matisse *ITC Mendoza Roman *ITC Migration Sans *ITC Mixage *ITC Modern No. 216 *ITC Mona Lisa *ITC Motter Corpus *ITC Musclehead *Neue Aachen *ITC

New Baskerville Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, intended as a refinement of what ...

*ITC Newtext *ITC New Winchester *ITC Novarese *ITC Obelisk *ITC Obliqua *ITC Officina Sans and Serif *ITC Ozwald *ITC Panache *

Papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

*ITC Pioneer *ITC Pious Henry *ITC Plaza *ITC Portago *ITC Quay Sans *ITC Quorum *Rage *ITC Redonda *ITC Ronda *ITC Serif Gothic *ITC Slimbach *ITC

Souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

*ITC Snap *ITC Stenberg *ITC Stone Sans *ITC Stone Informal *ITC Stylus *ITC Symbol *ITC Tabula *ITC Tetra *ITC Tiepolo *ITC Tiffany *ITC Tempus Sans *ITC University of California Old Style *ITC Usherwood *ITC Veljovic *ITC Vineyard *ITC Vintage *ITC Weber Hand *ITC Weidemann *ITC William Hamilton Page *ITC

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

*ITC

Zapf Chancery ITC Zapf Chancery is a family of script typefaces designed by the type designer Hermann Zapf and marketed by the International Typeface Corporation. It is one of the three typefaces designed by Zapf that are shipped with computers running Apple's ...

*ITC

Zapf Dingbats ITC Zapf Dingbats is one of the more common dingbat typefaces. It was designed by the typographer Hermann Zapf in 1978 and licensed by International Typeface Corporation. History In 1977, Zapf created about 1000 (or over 1200 according to Lino ...

*ITC Zemke Hand

U&lc magazine

The company published ''U&lc'' (Upper and Lower Case), a typographic magazine dedicated to showcasing their traditional and newer typefaces in particularly creative ways, originally edited and designed by

until his death in May, 1981. Because of its extraordinary blend of typographic design,

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...

and

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

(sometimes by world-renowned

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...

and

cartoonists A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary a ...

such as

Lou Myers Lou Myers (1915 – November 20, 2005) was a cartoonist and short story writer. He was the first person since James Thurber to contribute both cartoons and articles to ''The New Yorker''. His work has also appeared in ''The New York Times'', '' ...

), verse and

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

extolling the virtues of well-designed type, as well as contributions by amateur or semi-professional

typographers Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and ...

, the magazine was avidly read by type enthusiasts and sought after by collectors the world over. A web version of the magazine started in 1998, along with a brand-new sans-serif logo by Mark van Bronkhorst (replacing the famous swash lettered logo by Herb Lubalin). In an editorial, John D. Berry wrote: "There’ll be plenty of overlap between the print magazine and the online magazine, but they won’t be identical: some things are best done with ink on paper, others are best done on screen." Yet the paper edition, which in 1998 had shrunk in format from tabloid pages to 8.5" x 11", did not survive for long. The final printed edition was vol. 26 no. 2, dated fall 1999. The last numbered U&lc issue is 42.1.1, issued in 2010. A book celebrating U&lc, ''U&lc: Influencing Design & Typography'' by John D. Berry (the magazine's final editor) , was published by Mark Batty in 2005. In October 2010 Allan Haley announced on the Fonts.com blog that the complete run of U&lc had been digitized and would be made available, one year's worth per month, via PDF download from that same blog. As part of Fonts.com redesign in 2012, access to U&lc were moved to fonts.com blog, and Learn About Fonts & Typography for various U&lc web edition articles.

Acquisitions and mergers

In 1986 the company was acquired by Esselte Letraset, who had taken over

Letraset Letraset was a company known mainly for manufacturing sheets of typefaces and other artwork elements using the dry transfer method. Letraset has been acquired by the Colart group and become part of its subsidiary Winsor & Newton. Corporate histor ...

, originally makers of the first dry transfer lettering, and later to become developers of new typefaces for filmsetting and computer applications. In 2000, Agfa Monotype Corporation announced the acquisition of the capital stock of International Typeface Corporation (ITC) from Esselte. The transaction included ITC’s complete library of over 1600 typefaces, all typeface subscriber and distributor agreements, the itcfonts.com Web site, and typographic software. At this point ITC ceased to operate as an independent entity. In November 2005 Agfa Monotype was incorporated as

, with a focus on the company's traditional core competencies of typographic design and professional printing. Famous contemporary

associated with Monotype include

Adrian Frutiger Adrian Johann Frutiger ( ; 24 May 1928 – 10 September 2015) was a Swiss typeface designer who influenced the direction of type design in the second half of the 20th century. His career spanned the hot metal, phototypesetting and digita ...

, Hermann Zapf and

Matthew Carter Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is a British type designer.Christophe_Plantin.html" ;"title="y Christophe Plantin">y Christophe Plantin' in typography's golden age was in perfect condition (some muddle aside) long withPlantin's accoun ...

References

*Blackwell, Lewis. ''20th Century Type''. Yale University Press: 2004. . *Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History''. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. .

External links

ITC homepageMonotype Imaging
{{Authority control Type foundries Design companies established in 1970 Design companies disestablished in 1986 1970 establishments in New York (state) 1986 disestablishments in New York (state)