The father of four children (including poet Colette Peignot, under her alias Laure), under his leadership the G. Peignot & Fils foundry became one of the most well-known and remarkable French typography houses of the twentieth century (an "elite house",[2] according to a former French Prime Minister): over 17 years, he created or launched several prestigious fonts, including Grasset, Cochin, and Garamont.

It was created in 1842 by Pierre Leclerc[3] and bought and directed by his mother, Clémentine Dupont de Vieux Pont (1815–1897), the widow of Laurent Peignot.

Back in France in 1893, Georges Peignot spent two and a half years in military service, where he was graduated as sergeant, the highest rank for those who do not have the baccalaureate.

In 1896, he married Suzanne Chardon, daughter of a master intaglio printer in charge of chalcography for the Louvre, whose workshops still may be seen at 10 rue de l'Abbaye, in Paris (courtyard).

[6] In 1897, as a young industrialist aged 25, Georges Peignot met Eugène Grasset already famous in the Art Nouveau world for his furniture, posters, stamps, titles and patterns of books, textiles, printed wallpapers, and other items.

Grasset had freely adapted to the alphabet of Nicolas Jenson (1471) with the intention of using it to print a book on his own method for ornamental composition that was inspired by the courses he gave to the Guérin school.

Georges Peignot and Francis Thibaudeau, a high-quality master typographer he had hired, created a small catalog, that was discreet, but very tasteful.

After sending the catalog to all important printers, the orders poured into the company, and compliments from specialized press and art connoisseurs were garnered.

The success earned Georges Peignot, 29, the recognition of his peers and he became treasurer of the Chambre syndicale (typographic trade association).

Beneath their aesthetic success, the two volumes also were useful: all the technical details that can be used in a printshop were clearly set out in tables, lists, diagrams: return rates and prizes of old fonts, sizes of various folded formats, instructions on cutting lines, etc.

The text is serious and didactic: the last chapter is written by Francis Thibaudeau, who painted a retrospective of typography and its scenery, from the Renaissance to present day.

In 1910, he launched the "Bellery-Desfontaines", an upscale fantasy character in rupture with Art nouveau style: any vegetal form was excluded.

Georges Peignot found inspiration in the engravings of the eighteenth century: supported by Lucien Peignot, his younger brother who became co-manager and a close friend, and by Francis Thibaudeau, his typography master, he noticed that the writers of this time rejected the solemn style of founders such as Louis-René Luce, Fournier, Didot and preferred to engrave the text accompanying their illustrations themselves.

In 1912, the Cochin suite was launched on the market in two different ways: the first coup recalled the publication of the medieval book for Grasset and consisted, before marketing the lead fonts, to compose in Cochin a new fashion magazine: La Gazette du Bon Ton (launched by Lucien Vogel of Vogue, the Jardin des modes, etc.).

[11] Added to the personal attacks within his family, Georges Peignot has had also serious concern caused by constant improvements of automatic typographic machines he intended danger since 1905.

He had noticed that the Garamond typeface of the sixteenth century has been created at a time when we printed on thick cotton-based paper, in which the characters sank, leaving a greasy track.

When World War is declared, Georges was mobilized as adjutant of artillery of the Territorial army (composed of men aged 34–49 years, considered too old and not enough trained to integrate an active frontline regiment nor reserve).

September 28, 1915, north of Arras, between Souchez and Givenchy, Georges Peignot was struck by a bullet in the forehead « immediately after shouting to his troops: "En avant !

Louis Barthou, former French Prime Minister, wrote in 1916 about Georges Peignot that he was recognized « for his active and open mind, impatient of initiatives, for the righteousness of his strong and loyal character, for his simmering and thoughtful passion for the noble art to which he had devoted his life.

[17] The foundry's posterity was tainted by family maneuvers: after the war, Georges Peignot and four of his other brothers were dead (the eldest died of illness in 1913); the potential successors were the two girls or the mother.

The latter managed in 1919 to impose his surviving children or their widows a 1 million capital increase, given to a competitor, the Deberny foundry, in financial difficulty… which was the property of Jane's husband.