Starting in 1960, the Mergenthaler Linotype Company became a major supplier of phototypesetting equipment which included laser typesetters, typefonts, scanners, typesetting computers.

[2] The invention of a machine to replace the labor-intensive task of setting type by hand had been tackled by many inventors during the 19th century.

Multiple lines would be stacked into blocks, sometimes paragraphs, to be set in place in the proper column of the page layout.

Another benefit of this overall process was that each edition of the paper was created from a fresh casting of metal, thus avoiding problems of type wear.

Another problem Mergenthaler solved was in justifying the type, or ensuring that in a column of print, there were flush margins on the left and right.

Mergenthaler adapted the "space band" (patented by J. W. Schuckers), a device consisting of two wedges of metal connected loosely.

[6] In 1889 The Linotype Company, a British offshoot of the firm, was formed by Joseph Lawrence, publisher of The Railway Magazine.

[7] A particularly notable success was Linotype's Legibility Group of typefaces, used by most of the world's (Latin-alphabet) newspapers for much of the twentieth century.

The following month certain divisions of Linotype-Hell AG were spun off into new companies, one of which was Linotype Library GmbH with headquarters at Bad Homburg vor der Höhe.

This new company was responsible solely for the acquisition, creation and distribution of digital fonts and related software.

[2] Monotype stated that it could no longer maintain its desired level of quality across the platforms and would instead be focussing its efforts on developing its MyFonts site.