Bitstream is known among type enthusiasts and professionals alike as being one of the companies that lead the way towards the democratization of type. For centuries, the type world had been the exclusive domain of skilled typographers who worked large, cumbersome presses. With the birth of digital type though, came a revolution in the industry that enabled Bitstream, one of the first digital type foundries, to help grow the desktop publishing industry.

The company’s founders shared a vision in which desktop publishing and digital type would open up doors and allow for the access of previously exclusive typefaces to a broader public audience.

Eventually, this idea of opening up the type market led to the development of fonts like Amerigo and New Lincoln Gothic; designs that played huge roles in the launching, and eventual success, of desktop publishing.

With best-selling typefaces like Futura in its line up, this library made an enormous impact on the type industry and helped to form it into what it is today.