Editing Letraset

{{Short description|Type foundry company originating in the UK}}
{{About|the Letraset company|the rub-on lettering sheets closely associated with them|Dry transfer|rub-on halftone screens|Screentone}}
{{more sources needed|date=August 2023}}

[[File:Letraset-boegen.JPG|thumb|[[Dry-transfer lettering]] sheet made by Letraset (left) alongside similar product made by a rival]]
[[File:Dry-transfer lettering sheets.jpg|thumb|Dry-transfer lettering sheets. Top left: Futura Bold (no. 234-16) by Geotype. Top right: Clarendon Medium (no. 151) by Letraset. Bottom left: Circles (no. C98589) by Letraset. Bottom right: Squares (no. C87060) by Letraset.]]

'''Letraset''' was a company known mainly for manufacturing sheets of [[typefaces]] and other artwork elements using the [[dry-transfer lettering]] method. Letraset was acquired by the [[Colart]] group and became part of its subsidiary [[Winsor & Newton]].

== 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>

== Cultural history ==

The dry rub-down transfer technique was used by the [[punk movement]] because of its ease of manipulation, its low price and the quality of the rendered layout. Letraset's ease of use and widespread availability aligned with the [[do-it-yourself]] value of this movement by allowing punks to create designs independent from printers and publishers.<ref>{{Cite episode| publisher = ARTE| title = Letraset, la police du punk| series = Gymnastique| accessdate = 2021-01-20| date = 2019-04-17| minutes = 6 | url = https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/086962-009-A/gymnastique/}}</ref>

== Product ==
[[File:Killed a nun small.jpg|thumb|An example use of Letraset in modern art: labelling a photograph by Israeli artist [[Michal Na'aman]]]]
In common usage, the name Letraset originally referred to sheets of transfer lettering that were originally manufactured as a wet process in 1959, with each character selected and cut from a sheet, placed face-down on a small [[silk screen]] frame and wetted with a paint brush to soften and release the [[gum arabic]] adhesive which held it. The frame was then turned over and the letter located over the artwork, and the character pressed into contact with the page, with the mounting base slid away as with model aircraft transfers.

Later, in 1961, the process was simplified, and a [[dry transfer]]able [[lettering]] system was developed. The range of available [[typefaces]] expanded, incorporating both classic and contemporary type designs of the period. Letraset sheets were used extensively by professional and amateur [[graphic designers]], [[architects]] and [[commercial artist|artists]] in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. As a result of its relative affordability, and because of its ease of use, it also came to be used by [[printer (publishing)|printers]], [[design studio]]s and [[advertising agencies]]. In the late 1980s, Letraset started to be replaced by [[desktop publishing]]. Today, Letraset sheets are traded on eBay and elsewhere, and sometimes used so that a designer can avoid a digital look.

The name Letraset is also often used to [[Genericized trademark|refer generically]] to sheets of [[dry-transfer lettering]] of any brand. This technique was very widespread for lettering and other elements before the advent of the phototypesetting and laser [[computer]] techniques of [[word processing]] and [[desktop publishing]]. Currently, Letraset's line of print patterns and textures are more commonly used than its lettering.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

== Lorem ipsum ==
[[Lorem ipsum]] filler text has been featured on Letraset advertisements for decades. There are some indications that its use predates Letraset, but nothing definite has surfaced prior to Letraset's popularising it.<ref>{{citation |title=What does the filler text "lorem ipsum" mean? |first=Cecil |last=Adams |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=February 2001 |url=https://www.straightdope.com/21343427/what-does-the-filler-text-lorem-ipsum-mean }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Dry transfer]]
* [[Screentone]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20010801180738/http://www.letraset.com/start.htm Letraset Official website, archived version from 2001]
*[http://db.tidbits.com/article/3683 ColorStudio wins MacUser Editor's Choice award 1990]

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[[Category:Ashford, Kent]]
[[Category:Cold type foundries]]
[[Category:Commercial type foundries]]
[[Category:Companies based in Kent]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1959]]
[[Category:1959 establishments in England]]
[[Category:British companies established in 1959]]
[[Category:Products introduced in 1959]]
[[Category:2000 mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:2012 mergers and acquisitions]]