The International Typesetting Machine Company was founded in 1911 by Hermann Ridder in New York. In 1916 it was rebranded as the Intertype Corporation.
Intertype originally made modifications to existing Linotype machines. It therefore took contact with Linotype users and listened to their complaints. During its existence, it more or les kept the habit of promoting themselves as better than the competitors. As can be seen by the notes of Spencer for the Intertype Sales team (Spencer, n.d., somewhere the 40's), Intertype (or at least the sales team) put emphasis on the problems with several Linotype models.
By making modifications to Linotypes, the company was marked as a copycat, receiving the perception of liquidity problems.However, from 1917 they produced their own models. This became possible as soon as most of the original patents of the Mergenthaler Linotype Company had expired. Although the Intertype machines closely resembled the Linotype, several improvements were developed. Therefore, Intertypes were less error-prone, making them more reliable and easier to repair. It became a well company with a respected name. In 1957, the Intertype company merged with the Harris-Seybold company, a company producing presses and paper cutters. Together they became the Harris-Intertype Corporation.
Intertype marketed their machines as 'standardized models', meaning that parts were universal and could be exchanged between the different machines. Intertype explicitly advertized this advantage, with statements such as 'no standardized Intertype has ever become obsolete' (Intertype, n.d.). This opposed the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, which produced parts that were difficult to exchange, and also had several production plants that made their own variations on the machines (for example American, English and German models).
Intertype was the first company to develop a photo-typesetting machine, the Fotosetter. Originally, it was a standard Intertype machine, but with the casting mechanism replaced by a lighting installation. The matrices contained a film negative, which was projected with light on photographic paper. This meant the end of hot metal typesetting and introduced cold typesetting.
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