Bitstream Inc.

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Bitstream Inc.
Public (NASDAQ: BITS)
Industry Type foundry, mobile phone web browsers
Fate Acquired by Monotype
Founded 1981
Defunct March 19, 2012 (2012-03-19)
Headquarters Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA
Key people
 Amos Kaminski, Chairman and Interim CEO
Number of employees
 96[1]
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Bitstream Inc. is a now-defunct type foundry that produced digital typefaces. Founded in 1981 by Matthew Carter and Mike Parker among others, it claims to be the oldest such company. It was located in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The font business, including MyFonts, was acquired by Monotype Imaging in March 2012.[2][3] The remainder of the business, responsible for Pageflex and Bolt Browser, was spun off to a new entity named Marlborough Software Development Holdings Inc.[4][5] It was later renamed Pageflex, Inc following a successful management buyout in December 2013.[6]

Products

Besides building a library of "classic" fonts (usually under different names for trademark reasons), Bitstream developed a number of fonts on its own. The Bitstream font collection is most widely used through its inclusion with the CorelDRAW software. Bitstream also created the freeware Bitstream Vera family of fonts.

Another Bitstream product is Font Fusion, a font rasterizing engine developed jointly with Type Solutions, Inc., which was later owned entirely by Bitstream.[7]

One of their best known fonts is Swiss 721 BT, which is a Helvetica clone with condensed versions and a rounded version. It was among the first digitally available Swiss family typefaces, being designed for that purpose in 1982.

History

The company had a high level of involvement in BeOS, with older BeOS releases using a Bitstream renderer, and the latest development releases from 2001 using Font Fusion. The OS, including its freeware releases, included a large number of Bitstream fonts, including their clones of Times New Roman, Helvetica and Courier.

On December 2, 1998, Bitstream Inc. announced acquisition of all outstanding stock of Type Solutions, Inc. In addition, Sampo Kaasila, its founder and president and the creator of TrueType, agreed to join Bitstream's team as Director of Research and Development.

In March 2000, Bitstream launched MyFonts, an open marketplace offering fonts from various foundries.

In January 2009, Bitstream introduced the BOLT Browser, a Java ME-based Web browser for mobile phones. It was distributed free of charge to consumers and was built using the company's ThunderHawk mobile Web browsing technology for mobile network operators and handset manufacturers. The product was discontinued by the end of 2011.

See also

References

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