Monotype Imaging Acquires China Type Design Limited; Acquisition Sets Up Expansion of Font Solutions into Asian Consumer Electronics and Printer Markets.

WOBURN, Mass. -- Monotype Imaging Inc., a global leader in font and imaging technologies, has acquired China Type Design Limited, a typeface design and production company based in Hong Kong. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Monotype Imaging, China Type will help lead expansion into Asian consumer electronics and printer markets which require scalable, multilingual text solutions.

China Type has been a long-time partner of Monotype Imaging, which previously held 20 percent ownership of the firm. Over a 20-year period, the companies have collaborated on a wide range of Asian font projects, with recent work involving typefaces for Hewlett-Packard XHTML-based inkjet printers shipping in Japan and China, and East Asian fonts for the Microsoft(R) Windows Vista(TM) operating system.

"We're setting a new course with China Type to serve a wide range of industries, from mobile phones to office printers, where in many regions of Asia highly specialized font and text technologies are necessary," said Robert M. Givens, president and chief executive officer of Monotype Imaging. "China Type brings a unique combination of unrivaled design talent and the ability to manage low-cost, high volume font production and quality assurance testing. These capabilities will be instrumental in our strategy to accelerate technology and design solutions to our customers within various parts of Asia in response to rapid, localized economic growth. Establishing a foothold in the region from which we can build out a local support and response structure, in addition to leveraging the design and production benefits that China Type already brings, will be a key to success."

"Our solid relationship with Monotype Imaging is a valuable asset," said Ricky Chun, who will continue to lead China Type as its managing director. "We look forward to being a part of Monotype Imaging after working closely together for many years on various innovative projects, from improving the display of Chinese characters on cell phones to designing and producing East Asian fonts for popular operating systems."

A recent collaboration involved the design and development of the Microsoft JhengHei(TM) typeface, a Traditional Chinese, OpenType(R)-based typeface family, optimized with Microsoft's ClearType(R) subpixel rendering technology for use in the Vista operating system. "The JhengHei design began life at China Type the old-fashioned way - each character was meticulously hand drawn using pen and ink," said Geoff Greve, vice president of font development at Monotype Imaging. "Thousands of letterforms were then scanned and hinted to refine each character to comply with the ClearType standard for ensuring exceptional display quality at small sizes on low-resolution screens."

Lori Brownell, Microsoft's general manager for the Windows International Global Services Division said, "China Type and Monotype Imaging are known for producing high-quality typefaces, and the JhengHei design is no exception. We've worked with China Type and Monotype Imaging for many years, and we rely on them to consistently deliver aesthetically pleasing fonts of the highest technical quality."

China Type and Monotype Imaging have also recently completed work on a patent-pending technology involved in the ability to display scalable Simplified Chinese characters at small sizes with exceptional clarity on cell phones. The technology is available with the iType(R) 3.0 font engine, the newest version of Monotype Imaging's font rasterizer that enables the rapid display of scalable characters on memory-constrained devices.

As part of the China Type acquisition, Monotype Imaging has secured an exclusive relationship with Creative Calligraphy Center (CCC), a font production company in Zhuhai, China, with 30 production specialists. When combined with the number of design, production, testing and support specialists at China Type and Monotype Imaging, the roster grows to 78 - nearly double the company's capacity prior to the acquisition.

Monotype Imaging also intends to partner with additional typeface design firms in Asia, with China Type and CCC managing post-design production phases. Robin Hui, operation manager and chief typographer at China Type, discussed issues related to font production: "It's an intensive process that is not well understood. Asian fonts can contain thousands of intricate shapes, which pose major challenges for developers of products such as cell phones that are extremely limited in memory or storage. The combined production teams of China Type and Monotype Imaging will allow us to be well positioned to provide high-quality service and support to an expanding customer base."

About China Type Design

With offices in Hong Kong and Beijing, China Type Design was founded in 1986 and employs a team of experienced Asian font design and production experts. Information about China Type can be found at www.monotype.com.hk.

About Monotype Imaging

Based in Woburn, Mass. with regional offices in the U.K., Chicago, Redwood City, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Japan and China, Monotype Imaging is a global leader in fonts and font technologies for graphic professionals, software developers and manufacturers of printers and display devices. The company also provides print drivers and color imaging technologies to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Monotype Imaging is home to the Monotype(R) and ITC(R) typeface libraries, collections that include widely used designs such as the Arial(R), Times New Roman(R), Gill Sans(R) and ITC Franklin Gothic(TM) typeface families. Linotype Library GmbH, home to timeless designs such as the Helvetica(R), Frutiger(R) and Palatino(R) typeface families, is a Monotype Imaging company. Monotype Imaging offers fonts and industry-standard solutions for most of the world's written languages. Information about Monotype Imaging and its products can be found on the company's Web sites at www.monotypeimaging.com, www.fonts.com, www.linotype.com, www.monotypefonts.com, www.customfonts.com, www.fontwise.com, www.itcfonts.com and www.faces.co.uk.

Monotype and iType are trademarks of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Arial, Times New Roman and Gill Sans are trademarks of The Monotype Corporation registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. Hei and Sung are trademarks of The Monotype Corporation and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. ITC is a registered trademark and ITC Franklin Gothic is a trademark of International Typeface Corporation. Helvetica, Frutiger and Palatino are registered trademarks of Linotype GmbH in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Microsoft, Windows, Vista, ClearType, OpenType and JhengHei are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) 2006 Monotype Imaging Inc. All rights reserved.