Mono­type Ima­ging Intro­duces New Font License to Per­mit Use on Non-Commercial Web Sites

End User License Agree­ment Allows for Spe­cific Use of Embed­ded Open­Type Fonts at No Addi­tional Charge

WOBURN, Mass., June 2, 2009 – Mono­type Ima­ging Hold­ings Inc. (Nas­daq: TYPE), a lead­ing global pro­vider of text ima­ging solu­tions, has intro­duced a non-commercial end user license agree­ment, or EULA, that per­mits the use of fonts in the Embed­ded Open­Type® format on the Web. Inten­ded to extend font choice for Web page design, the EULA requires no addi­tional fee for use on a non-commercial Web site when licens­ing products from the company’s Mono­type®, Lino­type®, ITC® and Image Club™ typeface col­lec­tions from Mono­type Imaging’s e-commerce sites: Fonts.com, Linotype.com, ITCFonts.com and Faces.co.uk.

His­tor­ic­ally, Web pages have been designed using fonts that exist on cli­ent or recip­i­ent com­puters, a scen­ario that has presen­ted a lim­ited typo­graphic selec­tion for Web page design. Through the use of Embed­ded Open­Type, or EOT, fonts can be linked to Web pages and down­loaded to the client’s machine, enabling Web design­ers to spe­cify typefaces that are not present on the recipient’s com­puter. The use of EOT fonts opens oppor­tun­ity for design­ers to work with a sig­ni­fic­antly broader range of typefaces.

“Web design­ers should have the same options as print design­ers when choos­ing a font,” said John Seguin, exec­ut­ive vice pres­id­ent of Mono­type Ima­ging. “Through our sup­port of EOT, Web design­ers can now turn to our selec­tion of high-quality typefaces to leg­ally use on their sites, without incur­ring addi­tional licens­ing fees.”

The Embed­ded Open­Type format, which enables design­ers to spe­cify EOT fonts for use on defined Web pages, was developed by Microsoft and made avail­able as part of the Inter­net Explorer® browser. As with images and graph­ics, the fonts are down­loaded to the client’s machine, allow­ing pages to be rendered using the des­ig­nated fonts. Fonts in the EOT format can be linked to a domain – a step required by Mono­type Imaging’s new EULA – which pre­vents fonts from being used on unli­censed Web sites. The EOT format acts as a wrap­per around a font based on the TrueType® or Open­Type format. The wrap­per con­tains encryp­ted inform­a­tion that pre­vents the font from being used on a recipient’s com­puter bey­ond the abil­ity to dis­play the con­tent of the Web pages. The EOT format also uses Mono­type Imaging’s Micro­Type® Express com­pres­sion technology.

“Micro­Type Express min­im­izes EOT font file sizes, which helps reduce font down­load times and improves user exper­i­ence by ensur­ing that tex­tual con­tent is dis­played by a browser very quickly,” said Vladi­mir Levantovsky, senior tech­no­logy strategist at Mono­type Ima­ging. “EOT is par­tic­u­larly use­ful when deliv­er­ing Web con­tent in com­plex lan­guages such as Indic lan­guages, where a choice of res­id­ent fonts is very lim­ited. As a mem­ber of the World Wide Web Con­sor­tium, our goal is to estab­lish a uni­ver­sally sup­por­ted Web font format, either through browser adop­tion of EOT, or other format with sim­ilar cap­ab­il­it­ies, in order to provide an abund­ant selec­tion of type for every­one design­ing or view­ing con­tent on the Web.”

Avail­ab­il­ity

Mono­type, Lino­type, ITC and Image Club products can be licensed under the new EULA, avail­able on Mono­type Ima­ging e-commerce sites. In addi­tion, cus­tom­ers may also con­tact Mono­type Ima­ging in the U.S. toll-free at 800–424-8973, or in Europe at +44 (0)1737 765959, or 001781 970‑6020, option 2. Lino­type in Ger­many can be reached at +49 (0) 6172 484–418. Cus­tom­ers from other parts of the world may dial 001 781 970‑6020 (U.S.). Like its pre­de­cessor, the new EULA cov­ers per­sonal and internal busi­ness use but has been expan­ded to allow use of EOT fonts spe­cific­ally on non-commercial Web sites. Com­mer­cial use, includ­ing use of an EOT font on a com­mer­cial Web site, requires a sep­ar­ate license that can be obtained by con­tact­ing Mono­type Ima­ging. Licensed fonts can be con­ver­ted to the EOT format through the use of any pub­licly avail­able utility.

Fonts that were licensed prior to the avail­ab­il­ity of the new EULA will need to be repur­chased, if EOT rights are desired.

About Mono­type Imaging

Mono­type Ima­ging is a global pro­vider of text ima­ging solu­tions for man­u­fac­tur­ers and developers of con­sumer elec­tron­ics devices includ­ing laser print­ers, copi­ers, mobile phones, digital tele­vi­sions, set-top boxes, nav­ig­a­tion devices, digital cam­eras and soft­ware applic­a­tions and oper­at­ing sys­tems. The com­pany also provides printer drivers and color ima­ging tech­no­lo­gies to OEMs (ori­ginal equip­ment man­u­fac­tur­ers). Mono­type Ima­ging tech­no­lo­gies are com­bined with access to more than 10,000 typefaces from the Mono­type, Lino­type and ITC typeface lib­rar­ies – home to some of the world’s most widely used designs, includ­ing the Times New Roman®, Hel­vetica® and ITC Frank­lin Gothic™ typefaces. Fonts are licensed to cre­at­ive and busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als through cus­tom font design ser­vices, dir­ect sales or e-commerce portals. Mono­type Ima­ging offers fonts and industry-standard solu­tions that sup­port all of the world’s major lan­guages. The com­pany is based in Woburn, Mass., with regional offices in the U.K., Ger­many (Lino­type), Mt. Pro­spect, Ill., Red­wood City, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Japan, China and Korea. Inform­a­tion about Mono­type Ima­ging and its products can be found at www.monotypeimaging.com.