A type foundry is a company that designs individual letters of an alphabet and distributes those typefaces. Type foundries manufactured and sold wood and metal typefaces and matrices for line-casting machines designed to be printed on letterpress printers. Today's type foundries are digital. They accumulate and distribute typefaces created by type designers, who may either be freelancers operating their own independent foundry, or employed by another foundry.^[1]

Typography is the art and technique of arranging letters to make written language more appealing to the eye. Typefaces are a set of letters that have a font with a common design that is also called a font family. A printing press is a device, typically used for texts, that transfers ink evenly on a print medium (paper). A matrix (plural: matrices) is a mold for casting a letter when used to create letters in a type. Letterpress printing is a technique invented by Johannes Gutenberg that remained in wide use for books.

The invention of typography is why type foundries exist. Typography dates back to the ancient times from the first punches and dies used to make seals and currency.^[2] As time progressed, however, the way people practiced typography and printing created a major change in the book industry.

Type foundries began in 1476 in London, England when William Caxton became the first English book retailer. As he was involved in book production, Caxton realized the diversity in the market for books. In past travels, Caxton observed different printing industries and when he became famous for writing the first book in English, Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.^[3] He was inspired to created his first press in Westminster, England where he published Chaucer's famous edition of The Canterbury Tales. Caxton established the printing and book industry thus creating the Schwabacher typeface.^[4]

Each type foundry has its own unique style in how they approach printing and are diverse in their choice of fonts. As typography moves from paper to on screen/digital, there are many type foundries that keep original text that was used in from earlier times. However, there are many typefaces that are left behind because of the complexity of its legibility. Being able to read the text is an important factor type designers have to make sure has to be done in order to make text more appealing. ^[5]

The machines that were used in the 19-20th century were active metal (wood, etc.) letterpress machines inside type foundries. This was the procedure for typographic printing:

• First, they enter the copper mold (matrix)
  
• (2) Type
  
• (3) Composition
  
• (4) Proof
  
• (5) Printing
  
• (6) Cutting and Binding ^[6]

Companies: i.e. Adobe Type, Apple inc., Monotype Imaging. ^[7]

A commercial type foundry.

"An independent type foundry is a small company, collective or individual who sells and/or distributes typefaces. These foundries are often conducted by the type designers themselves, operating with a low overhead and fewer resources than a larger commercial foundry"^[8]

Punchcut is one specialty type foundry that design for electronics such as mobile devices, portable electronic devices and television.^[9]

Type foundries that no longer exist or are no longer functioning are considered historic.

Digital technology such as computers, cell phones, etc. revolutionized typography in a way that creating type is almost automatic. In the 21st century, we now use digital tools to create typefaces, compared to earlier forms of printing. Because of the internet, there are easier ways to create and distribute typefaces. Visual quality for text and the playing of font and size can be determined due to applications such as the Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.^[5]