The H. Berthold type foundry, renowned for crafting high-quality typefaces, was founded in 1858 by Hermann Berthold in Berlin. By 1918 the foundry had become the largest in the world, with offices in Stuttgart, St. Petersburg, Leipzig, Riga, Budapest and Vienna. Following World War II, Berthold actively developed proprietary typesetting equipment: in the 1950s, Berthold unveiled its first phototypesetting machine, the Diatype; and in the 1960s, Berthold introduced the Diatronic, its first keyboard-controlled phototypesetter for volume production.

To complement its proprietary typesetting equipment business activities, Berthold developed the Berthold Exklusiv Collection, a collection of typefaces created solely for Berthold by distinguished designers. Günter Gerhard Lange, renowned master craftsman, began his association with Berthold at the same time Berthold entered phototype, in 1952. As artistic director from 1961 to 1990, Lange was responsible for the creation, meticulous production standards and attention to quality found in each of the Berthold Exklusivs. In 1991, Bernd Möllenstädt succeeded Lange as the type director for the Berthold Exklusiv Collection and continued Lange’s tradition when directing the digitization of the Berthold Exklusivs.

Building on its strong heritage, Berthold Types, successor to the highly regarded H. Berthold type foundry, looks back onto a history of 148 years of distinguished type design. In 2000 after 10 years of retirement, G.G. Lange reunited with Berthold. Lange, along with Bernd Möllenstädt and Dieter Hofrichter, form the core of Berthold’s “Type Atelier” located in Munich to provide an indispensible element in the continued development of the Berthold Exklusiv typefaces.

With classics such as Akzidenz-Grotesk (the “original” sans), Block and City along with the more recent AG Book, Delta, Formata, Imago and Laudatio typefaces, Berthold offers one of the world’s leading type collections, The Berthold Exklusiv Collection, which consists of 800+ quality-crafted typefaces.

Some Berthold fonts are available in two versions: BE and BQ. The BE versions of Berthold fonts are the versions that were sold at one time by Adobe. The BQ versions are more up to date and should always be selected unless you need to match those Adobe Berthold fonts.
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