FontShop
Encyclopedia
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1989 by Erik Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann is a German typographer and designer. He is a professor at the University of the Arts Bremen....
and Joan Spiekermann, who were then husband and wife, and Neville Brody
Neville Brody
Neville Brody is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director.Neville Brody is an alumnus of the London College of Printing and Hornsey College of Art, and is known for his work on The Face magazine and Arena magazine , as well as for designing record covers for artists such as...
. FontShop was the first font reseller in digital type history. There are four independent FontShops in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Benelux
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and the USA.
FSI FontShop International
FSI FontShop International
FSI FontShop International is an international manufacturer of digital typefaces , based in Berlin and one of the large type foundries that exist today.All the typefaces are published as part of the FontFont library...
is licensor for the five FontShops. FontShop USA, based in San Francisco, is owned by FSI; all other FontShops are separate, independent companies concentrating on their own markets. While FSI produces typefaces as a foundry (FontFont typeface library, e.g. FF DIN
FF DIN
FF DIN is a realist sans-serif typeface designed in 1995 by Albert-Jan Pool, based on DIN-Mittelschrift. DIN is an acronym for Deutsches Institut für Normung ....
, FF Dax, and FF Meta
FF Meta
FF Meta is a humanist sans-serif typeface family designed by Erik Spiekermann originally as a commission for the Deutsche Bundespost , but later released by Spiekermann himself in 1991 through his FontFont library...
) and publishes FontBook
FontBook
FontBook is a typeface compendium in hardback published by FSI FontShop International and edited by Erik Spiekermann, Jürgen Siebert, and Mai-Linh Thi Truong. Published in 1991, it has been revised four times, with the latest edition published in September 2006. This fourth edition contains 32,000...
, the FontShops work as reseller
Reseller
A reseller is a company or individual that purchases goods or services with the intention of reselling them rather than consuming or using them. This is usually done for profit...
s of FSI’s FontFonts but also of fonts from 100 other foundries.
FontShop Germany organises the annual European design conferences TYPO Berlin since 1995 and since 2011 TYPO London.
In 2008, FontShop also published a web-based font editor called FontStruct.