It was founded in 1992 and is regarded as of the leading publishers of classics and scholarly works in Albanian.

In 1992 Bujar Hudhri founded Onufri soon after the fall of communism with a vision to continue the promulgation of Albanian culture at a time of Albania's history when its population had become infatuated with foreign works.

[1] In 1996 Albanian author Ismail Kadare stated that he had chosen Onufri exclusively for all his works published in Albanian because of Onufri's seriousness, idealism, and lack of "greed for profit that has, unfortunately, become frequent in ... Eastern European countries.

"[2] In 2008 and 2010 Onufri was awarded the Lumo Skëndo Bibliophilia prize by the National Library of Albania and Albanian Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

[3][4] In 2012 Onufri launched its Minerva imprint for the publication of general interest books.