Editing Letraset (section)

== Corporate history ==

Letraset was founded in [[London]], England, in 1959, with the launch of the Letraset Type Lettering System.<ref>{{cite web|title=Letraset Type Lettering System|url=http://www.action-transfers.com/html/a_articles/typelettering.shtml|website=Action Transfers|access-date=16 August 2014}}</ref> In 1961, Letraset came out with their dry transfer lettering system, which pioneered the technique.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letraset |url=https://fontsinuse.com/foundry/124/letraset |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=Fonts in Use |language=en}}</ref> 

Starting in 1964, Letraset also applied the dry rub-down transfer technique to create a children's arts and crafts toy called [[Action Transfers]], which would later develop into [[Kalkitos]] (marketed by [[Gillette (brand)|Gillette]]), and many other series of transferable figures that were very popular up to the 1980s. Letraset was acquired by the Swedish stationery company Esselte until 2000, when it was sold to a management buyout headed up by Martin Gibbs and Michael Travers. Eventually sold to ColArt in 2012. 

Seeing a decline in the sales of its materials in the early 1990s, Letraset moved into the desktop publishing industry, releasing software packages such as ImageStudio and ColorStudio for the [[Macintosh]]. These never saw widespread success. However, as Letraset held the rights to their fonts that had been popular on the dry transfer sheets, it made sense to enter the digital font market (see, for example, [[Charlotte Sans]]). Letraset thus began releasing many fonts in formats such as [[PostScript]].

Fonts from designers including [[Martin Wait]], Tim Donaldson, and David Quay were released, and many can be found on online retailers such as FontShop. Some fonts retain "Letraset" in their title, whereas others have been renamed by their new vendors, among them [[International Typeface Corporation|ITC]].

A selection of fonts is still sold from its website, separated into fonts from Fontek and Red Rooster. Software includes [[Clip Studio Paint|Manga Studio EX]] and Envelopes, a [[Plug-in (computing)|plug-in]] for [[Adobe Illustrator]].

Letraset is the maker of the refillable Tria markers, formerly Pantone Tria markers, which have a three-nib design and 200 colours. Additionally, Letraset offers three lines of dual-tipped markers, the alcohol-based ProMarker and FlexMarker lines, each with 148 mostly different colours and the water-based AquaMarkers with 60 colours.

Letraset was based in [[Le Mans|Le Mans, France]],{{citation needed|date=May 2016}} having previously been based in [[Ashford, Kent]],<ref name="letraset_201104">{{cite web | url=http://www.letraset.com/shopcontent.asp?type=AboutUs | title=About Us | access-date=April 7, 2011 | publisher=Rocksalt International Pty Ltd. | quote=Registered Office: Letraset Limited, Kingsnorth Industrial Estate, Wotton Road, Ashford, Kent, TN23 6FL, United Kingdom. | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104224946/http://www.letraset.com/shopcontent.asp?type=AboutUs | archive-date=November 4, 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref> until being acquired in June 2012 by the Colart group and becoming part of its subsidiary Winsor & Newton.<ref>{{cite web|last=Monk|first=Zoe|title=ColArt Group Acquires Letraset|url=http://craftbusiness.com/site/index.php/content/news/colart_group_acquires_letraset/|publisher=Craft Business|access-date=11 July 2012|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614070015/https://craftbusiness.com/site/index.php/content/news/colart_group_acquires_letraset/|archivedate=June 14, 2012}}</ref>