Type foundry

A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Originally, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Monotype machines designed to be printed on letterpress printers. Today's digital type foundries accumulate and distribute typefaces (typically as digitized fonts) created by type designers, who may either be freelancers operating their own independent foundry, or employed by another foundry. Type foundries may also provide custom type design services.

In England, type foundries began in 1476, when William Caxton introduced the printing press. Thereafter the City of London became a major centre for the industry, until recent times when famous metal-based printing districts such as Fleet Street came to the close of their era. The industry was particularly important in Victorian times, when education became available to all due to the new School Boards, and firms such as Charles Reed & Sons were in their heyday. The St Bride Printing Library in the City of London encourages wider public interest in the remarkable history of typefounding for the printed book and newspaper.

Haas Type Foundry

Haas Type Foundry (Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei) was a Swiss manufacturer of foundry type. First the factory was located in Basel, in the 1920s they relocated to Münchenstein.

History

Haas traces its origins back to the printer Jean Exertier who began casting type during the second half of the 16th century, later passing to the Genath family. In 1718, Johann Wilhelm Haas (1698–1764) from Nuremberg was hired. He later inherited the company as recognition of his efforts. After 1740, the business was run under the Haas name. In 1927 the Stempel Foundry acquired a shareholding in the Haas foundry and the two foundries begin to share matrices. Haas purchased the French foundries Deberny & Peignot in 1972, and Fonderie Olive in 1978. With Linotype’s acquisition of the D. Stempel AG in 1985, they became the majority shareholder. In 1989, Linotype shut down the Haas Foundry, retaining the rights to the typefaces, and transferring metal typefounding operations to Walter Fruttiger AG.