Bitstream Inc.
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Bitstream Inc. is a type foundry that produces digital typefaces (fonts). Founded in 1981 by Matthew Carter and Mike Parker among others, it claims to be the oldest such company. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Besides building a library of "classic" fonts (usually under different names for trademark reasons), Bitstream has developed a number of fonts itself. The Bitstream font collection is most widely used through its inclusion with the CorelDraw software. They have also made the free font Bitstream Vera.
Another Bitstream product is Font Fusion, a font rasterizing engine developed jointly with Type Solutions.
The company had a high level of involvment in BeOS, with older BeOS releases using a now-outdated Bitstream renderer, and the latest development releases from 2001 using Font Fusion.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.
Their best known font is Swiss 721 BT, which is a Helvetica clone, but has condensed versions, and a rounded version that is closer to Comic Sans MS than a Swiss family font. It was amongst the first digitally available Swiss family typefaces, being designed for that purpose in 1982.
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External link
- Bitstream website (http://www.bitstream.com)