TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Fri Dec 13 00:44:06 EST 2024

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ABOUT

Lanston Type Co [Gerald Giampa]

The Lanston Type Co was based in PEI, Canada, moved in 2002 to Vancouver, and moved later that year to Espoo, Finland. In 2004, Lanston was sold to P22. It has classic and wonderful offerings such as Albertan, Bodoni, Caslon, Deepdene (Frederic Goudy, 1929-1934; see D690 Roman on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, or URW Deepdene, or Barry Schwartz's Linden Hill (a free font)), Goudy Oldstyle, Jacobean Initials, Kennerly, Kaatskill, Water Garden and Jefferson Gothic. Owned by Gerald Giampa (b. 1950, d. Vancouver, 2009), who wrote me this: Frederic Goudy worked for us for 29 years. We manufactured Monotype casters and keyboards. The English sister company sold casters to England and the Commonwealth and we sold to the Americas and wherever else practical. Tolbert Lanston, our founder, was the inventor of Monotype. We still sell matrices and were punching them until several years ago. Soon we expect to have the equipment moved and operational once again. We are placing it into America's largest printing museum which is in Andover close to Boston. However there is a possibility that it will end up in Hull Québec. Our previous type director was Jim Rimmer of Vancouver, noted type designer. He designs, cuts and cast type in lead. Our typeface Albertan was designed by Jim and is very successful. John Hudson and Ross Mills of Tiro were directly inspired by our facilities in Vancouver. I encouraged them towards type design. The beautiful Bodoni 26 (unicase) can be bought at FontShop. Atlantic 35 (1909-1935) is a modern family first used by the Atlantic Monthly in 1909.

The fonts: Albertan No. 977, Albertan Bold No. 978, Albertan Title No. 980,&Inline No. 979, Bodoni No. 175, Bodoni Bold No. 2175, Bodoni 26 (a Lanston unicase based on an interpretation by Sol Hess), No. 175, Caslon Old Style No. 337, Caslon Bold No's 637,&537, Deepdene No. 315, Figures Square No. 132, Flash No. 373, Fleurons C, Fleurons Granjon Folio, Fleurons Folio One, Forum No. 274, Francis No. 982, Garamont No. 248, Globe Gothic No's 240,&239,&230, Goudy Initials No. 296, Goudy Old Style No. 394, Goudy Thirty No. 392, Goudy Village (#2) No. 410, Hadriano Stone-Cut No. 409, Hadriano Title No. 309, Jacobean Initials, Jefferson Gothic No. 227, Jenson Old Style No. 508, Kaatskill No. 976, Kaufmann (Lanston Swing Bold) No. 217, Kennerley Old Style No. 268, Metropolitan No. 369, Obelisk No. 2577, Pabst Old Style No. 45, Pabst Old Style Open, Spire No. 377, 20th Century No. 605, Vine Leaves C, Vine Leaves Folio One, Vine Leaves Folio Two, Water Garden Ornaments. P22 writes this about Lanston: In the late 1800s, Tolbert Lanston licensed his technology to an English sister company and became a major international force. Lanston grew rapidly with America's pre-eminent type designer, Frederic Goudy, holding the position of art director from 1920-1947. The Philadelphia-based Lanston Monotype eventually parted ways with its English counterpart. English Monotype became simply known as Monotype from that time forth. Lanston was acquired by American Type Founders in 1969. After a series of other owners, the company found its way to master printer Gerald Giampa, who moved it to Prince Edward Island in 1988. During its time of transition, Lanston continued supplying the American market for monotype casters until January 21, 2000, when the hot-metal component of Lanston was tragically destroyed by a tidal wave. Giampa was one of the earliest developers of PostScript fonts. After the loss, he focused on digitization to an even greater extent. Under his stewardship, Lanston's classic typefaces were digitized in a style that was true to the sources, which are the brass and lead patterns from which the metal type was made. The past few years have seen Giampa and Lanston travel from Canada to Finland, and back again. Now, Lanston has completed another journey back to the United States to come under the care of a new steward: P22. Giampa is answering the call of the sea. He has traded his type founder's hat for that of a ship's captain to sail the northern Pacific coast. During his shore leaves, Giampa will act as typographic consultant to Lanston-P22. The P22 Lanston collection (2005-2006) was designed wih the help of people such as Paul Hunt and Colin Kahn. It includes these typefaces:

• LTC Archive Ornaments (2014, Richard Kegler and Miranda Roth).
• LTC Artscript.
• LTC Athena.
• LTC Bodoni 175. Digital version by Paul Hunt. This is supposed to be close to the original Bodoni.
• LTC Bodoni 26.
• LTC Bodoni Bold.
• LTC Broadway. By Sol Hess.
• LTC Californian.
• LTC Camelot.
• LTC Caslon Remix.
• LTC Caslon.
• LTC Christmas Ornaments.
• LTC Circled Caps.
• LTC Cloister.
• LTC Creepy Ornaments.
• LTC Deepdene.
• LTC Figures.
• LTC Flash.
• LTC Fleurons Garamont.
• LTC Fleurons Granjon.
• LTC Fleurons Rogers.
• LTC Forum Title.
• LTC Fournier Le Jeune. A decorative all caps combines the font designed by Simon Fournier for the Peignot Foundry in 1768 with a more elaborate "Vogue Initials" caps offered by ATF in the 1920s.
• LTC Garamont.
• LTC Glamour. LTC Glamour was originally released by Lanston Monotype in 1948. It is based on Corvinus, designed by Imre Reiner. P22 designer Colin Kahn has added some unusual variants.
• LTC Globe Gothic.
• LTC Goudy Extras.
• LTC Goudy Handtooled.
• LTC Goudy Heavyface.
• LTC Goudy Initials.
• LTC Goudy Modern.
• LTC Goudy Oldstyle.
• LTC Goudy Open.
• LTC Goudy Ornate.
• LTC Goudy Sans. Goudy Sans Bold was originally designed by Fredric Goudy in 1922 as a less formal "gothic" and finished in 1929. The light was designed in 1930 and the Light Italic in 1931. Colin Kahn digitized them in 2006 to make a 6-style Goudy Sans family at P22/Lanston, which includes a Goudy Sans Hairline.
• LTC Goudy Text.
• LTC Goudy Thirty.
• LTC Hadriano.
• LTC Halloween Ornaments.
• LTC Hess Monoblack.
• LTC Holiday Ornaments.
• LTC Holly Leaves.
• LTC Italian Old Style (2007, by Paul Hunt, after Goudy Italian Oldstyle, 1924). Remastered in 2011 by Paul Grieshaber as LTC Italian Old Style Pro: LTC Italian Old Style is not to be confused with the English Monotype font also called "Italian Old Style", which is an earlier design from 1911 based on William Morris's Golden Type that is based on Nicholas Jenson's Roman face. Goudy went back to Jenson's original Roman and other Renaissance Roman typefaces for his inspiration and the result is what many consider to be the best Renaissance typeface adapted for modern use. Bruce Rogers was one of the biggest admirers of Italian Old Style and designed the original specimen book for Italian Old Style in 1924 using his trademark ornament arrangement. These ornaments are now contained in the pro versions of the Roman styles- Regular Pro and Light Pro.
• LTC Jacobean Initials.
• LTC Jefferson Gothic.
• LTC Jenson. LTC Jenson Oldstyle was designed by J. W. Phinney of the Dickinson Type Foundry in 1893 and is based on Morris's Golden Typeface. This remastered set features a true italic based on the 1893 ATF italic version as well as a newly digitized Jenson Regular (P22) and Jenson Heavyface (P22) based on Phinney's design of 1899.
• LTC Kaatskill. The italic was completed by Jim Rimmer.
• LTC Kennerley.
• LTC Keystone Ornaments.
• LTC Law Italic (Lanston's digital version from 2006). Mac McGrew: Law Italic is said to have originated as an imitation of formal styles of penmanship used for legal documents. The most common of several substantially different varieties is ATF's Law Italic No. 520, which originated with Marder, Luse about 1870. Several of the capitals are swash-like, while lowercase f and g have distinctive shapes. It has long thin serifs and sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes. Inland called the same design Caledonian Italic. Hansen had Barrister Italic. Monotype's Law Italic No. 23 is a sloped roman, somewhat similar to Ronaldson. Other Law Italics are obsolete.
• LTC Metropolitan.
• LTC Nicolas Cochin.
• LTC Obelysk Grotesk. A reconstruction of Sol Hess's Spire (1937) (digital versions first by Gerald Giampa and then by Colin Kahn).
• LTC Octic Gothic.
• LTC Ornamental Initials. Floriated caps.
• LTC Ornaments Animalia.
• LTC Ornaments One.
• LTC Ornaments Three.
• LTC Ornaments Two.
• LTC Pabst Oldstyle.
• LTC Powell.
• LTC Record Title.
• LTC Remington Typewriter.
• LTC Spire.
• LTC Squareface. By Sol Hess.
• LTC Swing Bold.
• LTC Tourist Gothic. By Sol Hess.
• LTC Twentieth Century.
• LTC Village No 2.
• LTC Vine Leaves.
• LTC Water Garden Ornaments.
• LTC Winchell (2021, Richard Kegler). A revival of Inland Type Foundry's Winchell (1906).

Fonts can be purchased from MyFonts where all fonts have the prefix LTC. Obituary of Giampa and links to obituaries.

Catalog of the Lanston typeface library. View the typefaces designed by Lanston. A more extensive page of Lanston Monotype typefaces.

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Extinct 20th century foundries ⦿ The Canadian type scene ⦿ The Finnish type scene ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Unicase type design ⦿ Dingbats (original) ⦿ Horror fonts ⦿ Typewriter fonts ⦿ Type scene in Pennsylvania ⦿ Type scene in Massachusetts ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Fashion mag typefaces ⦿ Skyline Typefaces ⦿ Caslon ⦿ Frederic William Goudy ⦿ Fournier ⦿ Venetian or antiqua typefaces ⦿