Monotype Provides Euro Support For Windows Operating Systems

Business Wire, Sept 1, 1998

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1998--Monotype Typography Inc, Microsoft's premier font supplier since 1990, has created the Euro currency symbol for the core fonts that Microsoft ships with their Windows 98 operating system. Previous versions of Windows operating systems and character encodings do not support the Euro, the currency symbol for the combined European Community.

The Euro currency symbol is available in Monotype's Arial, Times New Roman and Courier typefaces, all of which are core Windows fonts. Monotype has included it in another one of their most popular typefaces, Gill Sans, as well. A generic symbol design, called Euro Symbols MT, was also created by Monotype.

To accommodate users that work with Macintosh and versions of Windows other than Windows 98, Monotype has made their Euro inclusive fonts available free for downloading on their website at:

http://www.monotype.com/html/oem/euro%5Ffont/download.html

Each font is available in PostScript and TrueType formats for both the PC and Macintosh platforms, and in roman, italic, bold, and bold italic weights.

"The typeface industry faces a unique challenge with the Euro Symbol, because it has the potential to be one of the most widely used type characters in the world," said Brian Kraimer, vice-president at Monotype. "We have made it available to all of our customers right away, and in a stand alone font which makes the character easy to access."

The Euro symbol, which was created by the European Commission, had to satisfy three simple criteria: to be a highly recognizable symbol for Europe, to be easily written by hand and to have a pleasing aesthetic design.

Beginning January 1st, 1999, the banking industry will have the opportunity to start using the Euro in normal business operations. On January 1st, 2002, Euro notes and coins will be put in to use by the participating European communities.

Monotype is able to custom build fonts that include the Euro symbol for their customers. Special font configurations and other typeface related Euro symbols would be produced upon request.

Since the invention of the original Monotype(R) hot-metal type composing machine and the establishment of the Monotype Corporation one-hundred years ago, Monotype has been committed to supplying products of the highest quality to the publishing and computer industries. Monotype Typography has offices at Redhill (Surrey, England), Chicago, Palo Alto (California), and Hong Kong. The Monotype Typeface Library is one of the finest and most comprehensive collections in the world, and includes such well-known and widely used typefaces as Arial(R), Bembo(R), Gill Sans(R) and Times New Roman(R) - the original "Times" typeface. The company develops and markets fonts and software for computer systems and peripherals.

    CONTACT: Monotype
              Mark Larson, 847-718-0040 x118
              mark.larson@monotype.com