Monotype Imaging Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE), a leading global provider of text imaging solutions, has announced that Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN) and the global leader in satellite navigation, has licensed the iType® font engine from Monotype Imaging to display scalable, high-quality text on a range of Garmin® nüvi® automotive navigation devices.

“As a company focused on creating navigation and communication devices that enrich customers’ lives, Garmin is able to realize key benefits that are passed on to consumers through our font scaling technology,” said John Seguin, executive vice president of Monotype Imaging. “We’ve tailored our iType font engine to enable memory-constrained, consumer electronics devices to display clear, aesthetically pleasing text that can be scaled to any size. Other key iType capabilities include fast rendering speed, small code size, and the ability to apply special effects, such as displaying text outlined in different colors. This enables text to stand out from detailed or colorful backgrounds, such as maps. As devices become more interactive throughout the world, we believe that fonts will take on an even more important role.”

“The iType font engine is simply a good fit,” said Steve Martin, vice president of engineering at Monotype Imaging. “Garmin is able to count on iType technology to render sharp, legible text across a wide range of screen sizes. Garmin is also able to reduce the font memory footprint of their devices, which means that more memory can become available for speeding the delivery of other on-screen features and services.”

About the iType font engine

Monotype Imaging’s iType scalable font engine, based on the OpenType® and TrueType® font formats, allows OEMs and developers to build products that clearly display characters regardless of screen resolution or display size. In addition to fonts optimized for consumer electronics devices and innovations such as Monotype Imaging’s patent-pending SmartHint™ technology, which enables the clear display of East Asian text, the iType font engine supports Monotype Imaging’s stroke-based fonts, multilingual TrueType fonts, custom typefaces, bitmaps, embedded bitmaps, font subsets and linked fonts.

The iType font engine removes dependency on bitmap fonts, which are fixed in size. While bitmap fonts require individual sets for each type size and style supported by the device, the iType font engine requires just one scalable font for each style to cover all sizes. By removing the burden of storing multiple bitmaps, device manufacturers and developers are able to reduce memory usage on fonts.

About Monotype Imaging

Monotype Imaging is a global provider of text imaging solutions for manufacturers and developers of consumer electronics devices including laser printers, copiers, mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes, digital cameras and software applications and operating systems. The company also provides printer drivers and color imaging technologies to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Monotype Imaging technologies are combined with access to more than 10,000 typefaces from the Monotype®, Linotype® and ITC® typeface libraries – home to some of the world’s most widely used designs, including the Times New Roman®, Helvetica®and ITC Franklin Gothic™ typefaces. Fonts are licensed to creative and business professionals through custom font design services, direct sales or e-commerce portals. Monotype Imaging offers fonts and industry-standard solutions that support all of the world’s major languages. The company is based in Woburn, Mass., with regional offices in the U.K., Germany (Linotype), Mt. Prospect, Ill., Redwood City, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Japan and China. Information about Monotype Imaging and its products can be found at www.monotypeimaging.com, www.fonts.com, www.linotype.com, www.monotypefonts.com, www.itcfonts.com, www.customfonts.com, www.fontwise.com, www.fonts.hk and www.faces.co.uk.

Monotype and iType are trademarks of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. SmartHint is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Times New Roman is a trademark of The Monotype Corp. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. ITC is a trademark of International Typeface Corp. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. ITC Franklin Gothic is a trademark of International Typeface Corp. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Linotype is a trademark of Linotype GmbH registered in the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Helvetica is a trademark of Linotype Corp. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions in the name of Linotype Corp. or its licensee Linotype GmbH. Garmin and nüvi are registered trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. TrueType is a trademark of Apple Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other countries. OpenType is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the U. S. and/or other countries. © 2008 Monotype Imaging Inc. All rights reserved.

Source: Monotype Imaging Inc.