Caractères: La fabrication des caractères pour machines à écrire en Suisse, 1941–1997

Three Swiss companies manufactured type for typewriters between the 1940s and 1990s: Caractères SA, Setag and Novatype. For over fifty years, they supplied leading office machine manufacturers in Europe and around the world, including Remington, IBM, Olivetti, Paillard-Hermes and Triumph-Adler.

These three companies, which held a major position on the world market, were instrumental in the creation, development and manufacture of type components and typefaces for typewriters, and indeed for impact printers in general. These visually distinctive typefaces occupy a significant place on today’s typographic landscape.

This volume, with its detailed portraits of Caractères SA,  Setag and Novatype, explores the history behind these typefaces and the historical context in which they were produced. It offers fascinating insights into the global impact type industry. When the three Swiss factories closed in the 1990s, most of their archives were destroyed. As a result, this research quickly turned into a very detailed investigation aiming to document this period of history by means of primary sources. This publication brings together the fruits of several years of research in numerous locations to reveal previously unpublished image material and cast a spotlight on a little-known chapter in industrial and typographic history, both locally and internationally.

With texts by Sophie Wietlisbach, a preface by Roland Früh and a postface by Davide Fornari.