Monotype Announces Commercial Launch of SkyFonts - the First-of-its Kind Font Rental Service

Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. a leading provider of typefaces, technology and expertise for creative applications and consumer devices, has announced the commercial release of its SkyFonts service, a revolutionary system that enables typographic experimentation by allowing users to try or rent fully functional fonts. SkyFonts debuts with an inventory of more than 8,000 fonts.

Users can try fonts for free for up to five minutes within any desktop application or spend credits to rent fonts for as long as they're needed. When the trial or rental period expires or if the fonts are not renewed, they're removed automatically from the user's system.

"In addition to renting fonts economically, we understand that trying fonts is critically important to customers," said Chris Roberts, vice president and general manager of Monotype's e-commerce group. "Though many trialing options exist, SkyFonts succeeds like no other by allowing users to experiment with the actual fonts. We believe this could redefine the way designers search for type, while significantly altering the way fonts are purchased."

SkyFonts exits beta and launches commercially with several new enhancements:

Credit model: Customers can now purchase credits that can be used to rent fonts. Use one credit to rent a font for one day or three credits to rent a font for one month (30 days). Credits are available in packs of 15 or more at $3.00 per credit, or less if purchased in quantity. Credits can be used for one year before expiring.

Thousands More Fonts from Top Sources: Since the service's debut in beta, more than 5,500 fonts have been added to the SkyFonts inventory. SkyFonts now offers more than 8,000 fonts from the Monotype Libraries which include the Monotype, Linotype, ITC, Ascender and Bitstream collections. In addition, fonts are available from popular foundry partners including Mark Simonson Studio, TypeTogether, Typodermic, Emboss Fonts, Bean and Morris, Type Associates, Mint Type, Laura Worthington, the Chank Company and Yellow Design Studio.

Revamped Site Design: The SkyFonts.com website has been refreshed to make the service more fun to use.

Customers may sign up for a free account on SkyFonts.com. For a limited time, all new accounts will include 10 free credits. Customers can use the same SkyFonts account on up to five workstations. Based on patent-pending technology relating to time-restricted use of fonts, the system software runs in the background of Macintosh or Windows platforms to activate and deactivate OpenType fonts downloaded from the SkyFonts portal.