John D. Berry By the time of ATypI 2026 Stanford, I will have completed the history of ATypI that I began researching and writing before the Covid-19 pandemic. I expect to present the results at the conference in the form of a digital book. This talk will be a look back at the influence of ATypI, both in Europe and around the world, since its founding in the 1950s. I will speak particularly about the association’s initial purpose: protecting the rights of type designers and font manufacturers in a competitive industry. That effort has never been fully successful, but its story is illuminating. At the same time, ATypI has expanded its scope to become the major forum for typographic education, discussion, and the coming together of the global typographic community.
The talk will be well illustrated, and could be accompanied by an exhibit if the organizers would like that.