Monotype typefaces

[1] The first two firms mentioned above produced a long list of fonts, which were identified by names and serial numbers.

That type design eventually acquired a very good name and the "Monotype" brand was synonymous with high quality and reliability.

[2] In their name much typographic research on historical character designs from the early years of typography has been carried out.

Many of the letters were produced as "revivals", including characters in Garamond, Baskerville, Bodoni, Bembo, Caslon and many other typefaces.

The matrices of the two firms also differ in terms of depth, the image inside the matrix, implementation, and size.

The British company, The Monotype Corporation Ltd. in Salfords, had many customers in India, Africa, and Asia.

For these countries many non-Latin typefaces were created for printing in Hebrew, Javanese, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Thai, and other languages.

The composition-caster machines of The Monotype Corporation produced ready-to-use composed pages with text consisting of single pieces of type.

The machine provided filled lines, justifying them by adding spaces of varying widths.

These composition-casters could produce type in sizes up to 14 point pica or Didot font width.

For this reason one machine-run could not provide composition in both Roman and italic typeface, so additional hand work was required in such cases.

After conversion it could also be used to cast any material needed in print shops, including reglettes, ornaments, and similar designs, as well as characters up to 72 points.

The widest letter in the alphabet, usually the capital "W", was measured in quarter-pica points, a unit being 1⁄18 part of this width.

These UAs are essential for the layout of the matrix case, in which the matrices are sorted into rows by the unit widths.

However, for many fonts for luxury productions longer variants of the descenders were also available—the lining would usually need to be adjusted to accommodate them when casting.

It is further enhanced because not only the surface of the type get inked, but also the bevels around it, which also contributes to the visual effect of the printed typeface, as can be readily seen with a magnifying glass.

There is a difference compared with the old hot-metal characters since the fixed relationship between the width of the letters in the unit arrangement is often experienced as a disadvantage.

The alphabetical list below refers primarily to the fonts produced by the English "hot metal" Monotype company.

The list of computer letters from Monotype Imaging, Inc. is constantly being modified and can be best consulted on the website of the company.