Post #2597587
2026-03-26 11:37 UTC
@QuentinJuhel@post.lurk.org @dobody@mastodon.design That culminated in phototype times where the (proprietary) fonts were used as incentives to buy a certain typesetting machine or model. That’s also where design copying was rampant.
When type was physical, trade was mostly local. It didn’t make sense to ship cast foundry type across the globe. You’d rather trade matrices (or a minimum character-set) and then cast the respective type to be sold locally. Also type-height and alignment was different in different places.
Replies (1)
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@kupfers@mastodon.social 2026-03-26 11:41
@QuentinJuhel@post.lurk.org @dobody@mastodon.design Trade of matrices for typesetting machines was easier, and definitely analog and digital phototype in the 1960–80s. Cyrillic foundry type companies probably traded matrices among themselves and with Latin-using partners or mother companies (Berthold for instance had a branch in Russia). Cyrillic was developed from Latin design and localised characters for the different languages using Cyrillic. Do you have any concrete example/typeface we can help with?