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Monotype Announces the Commercial Launch of its Typecast Web Design Application

Thursday 31. January 2013 - Typecast Brings Precise Typographic Control to Website Design

Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE), a leading provider of typefaces, technology and expertise for creative applications and consumer devices, has announced the commercial launch of its Typecast application, a browser-based tool for designing Web pages with Web fonts.
The Typecast application launches commercially after a year and a half in private and public beta programs, bringing the design community a tool that helps to save time and create better quality Web typography.
“Good typography is transforming the Web, and the engine behind that is Web fonts,” said Chris Roberts, vice president and general manager of Monotype’s e-commerce group. “With Typecast, designers now have a simple yet powerful design tool that opens up a whole new level of productivity and creative expression. We’re very excited that it’s now part of our complete Web font offering.”
“The Typecast application simply takes the pain out of working with Web fonts,” said Paul McKeever, director of Typecast. “We’ve simplified workflow to bring joy to Web design and allow designers to spend more time on creative experimentation. They can iterate as quickly as they ideate and more easily create accessible, readable content for any sized screen on any device.”
Web designers are able to combine, compare and style Web fonts quickly without performing screen captures in third-party applications or through hand coding. Users can visually style text directly within the browser, which offers more scope for creative experimentation, better typographic control and a simplified workflow. As designers work, Typecast software generates production-ready HTML and CSS code behind the scenes. When designers are ready to start building their sites, they can export that HTML and CSS, plus generate embedded code that will serve their project’s typefaces to their site.
Designers can set styles such as font size, line spacing and coloring, and also apply OpenType features such as ligatures, small caps, fractions, lining and old style figures, and swash characters. Designers are able to try fonts on real, full-length project content, not just short snippets. Using side-by-side comparison and testing, designers can see at a glance what’s working and what’s not. Styles can be adjusted across entire projects with just a few clicks.
The Typecast application is available at four subscription levels, each with monthly, yearly and tri-yearly billing options. Prices start at $29 per month for an individual plan, and all plans include a free standard subscription to Fonts.com Web Fonts worth $10 per month, enabling Typecast subscribers to use more than 20,000 Web fonts on their live sites. The Typecast application is available as a free trial for 14 days.
The Typecast application allows designers to experiment with fonts from Typekit, Fontdeck, Webtype and Google Web Fonts as well as Monotype’s Fonts.com Web Fonts, which features thousands of typefaces, including timeless classics such as the Trade Gothic, Avenir and ITC Avant Garde Gothic families, as well as cutting-edge designs and hand-tuned fonts.
Further information about the Typecast application, including a video that details the product, is available at http://typecast.com, where visitors can also view customer videos from Happy Cog, one of the world’s most respected design agencies, and international publishing company Condé Nast, which used Typecast to redesign vogue.co.uk.
A public beta program for Typecast began one week prior to Monotype’s Oct. 30, 2012 acquisition of Design by Front Limited, the company behind the Typecast application. The product continues to be developed from Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Monotype now holds an office.