Chronology of greek typography

750 The wold's earliest printed document is a Sutra printed on a single sheet of paper in Korea.

868 The world's earliest printed book, the 'Diamond Sutra' (Prajnâ Pâramitâ) is written in Chinese and is one of the most important sacred works of the Buddhist faith. The seven strips of yellow-stained paper were pasted together to form a 5m long scroll which was printed using wooden blocks.

1040 Printing from movable type made of hard baked clay is being invented in China between 1040-1048 by Pi Sheng.

1377 The Jikji, the world's oldest extant book printed with metal type. Printed in Korea at the Heungdeoksa Tempel in Cheongju, this Buddhist document consisted of two volumes with a total of 307 chapters.

1403 Printing from movable types made of metal is being practiced in Korea during the 15th century. In 1403 a set of 100.000 copper types was cast by command of the king for book printing.

1454 The earliest and first dated document printed from movable type, by Gutenberg, Fust and Schöffer was a 30-line Indulgence granted by Pope Nicolaus V to those who donated money to the struggle against the Turks who had captured Constantinople.

1455 The 42-line Bible in latin printed at Mainz. Also known as the 'Gutenberg' bible, it was probably printed by Gutenberg, Fust and Schoffer during a period of around two years using the textura type of the 30-line Indulgence. Gutenberg's achievement in printing consists of the development of the printing press, capable of applying steady but rapid downward pressure, his skills with metal allowing him to develop individual pieces of type (the process of creating types-matrix, mould, type).

1457 The first printed book bearing both the name of the printers as well as the date of printing, Johann Fust and Peter Schoffer's Psalterium latinum printed at Mainz.

1461 The first dated book with woodcut illustrations. Der Edelstein, by Ulrich Bonner printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg.

1465 Peter Schoeffer's edition of Cicero's De Ufficiis et Paradoxa printed at Mainz, containing some greek quotations. First Greek printing in Germany.

1465 Sweynheym and Pannartz move to the monastery of Subiaco near Rome spreading the art of printing to Italy. They also print the Lanctantius Opera at Subiaco containing substantial Greek quotations, although no accents or breathing marks.

1467 The first dated illustrated book (31 woodcuts) appears in Italy and it is the Meditationes by Cardinal Turrecremata, printed by Ulrich Han of Ingolstadt.

1469-1470 Brothers De Spira and Nicolas Jenson cut the first complete greek types in Venice.

1471 The Letters of Cicero, Nicolas Jenson uses Greek types for the first time in his books.

1471 Adam of Ammergau printed a Greek grammar written in Latin with many Greek examples, an abridged version of Chrysoloras Erotimata in the redaction of Guarinus Veronensis. "Nearest approach to a Greek book made up to the time" [Proctor]

~1475 Publication of a complete greek text in Vincenza by Giovanni da Reno. The type was based on the hand of Dimitrios Chalkokondylis. First attempt to cut a greek fount based on a contemporary greek hand.

1475 First use of Greek type in Spain, Barcelona. Johannes de Salsburga and Paulus Hurus de Constantia print Nicolaus Perottus Rudimenta Grammaticae.

1475 The first printed book using Hebrew was printed at Reggio di Calabria by Abraham ben Garton. It was a Commentary on the Pentateuch by Rabi Salomon Rashi.

1476 The first exclusively greek book (design, composition and redaction) for which we know the place and time of production as well as the printer. It had been carried out by Dimitrios Damilas in Milan. The title was 'Epitomi ton okto meron tou logou' by Konstantinos Laskaris in collaboration with the printer Dionysius Paravisinus and the types were based on the hand of the scribe Michail Apostolis. The types were carved by Dimitrios Damilas and it was the first greek typeface to have presented a complete greek capital character set: decorative, enlogated capitals which were based on Byzantine calligraphic manuscripts.

1482 First use of Greek type in France. Johann Reuchin's Vocabularius breviloquus printed by Petrus Ungarus. Contains only small quantities of Greek.

1486 The two greek cretan clerics Laonikos Cris (Nikolaos Kavvadatos Kidoniatis) and Alexandros Alexandrou fron Chandaka print 'Vatrachomuomachia' and 'Psaltirio' in Venice where they attempt to address the greek public only. Birth of greek book printing production. The typeface used was rather illegible also containing many ligatures and it was probably cut in Crete.

1488 Dimitrios Damilas prints 'Omirou ta sozomena' in Florence under the auspices of Chalkokondulis. Beginning of the pursuit of book printing by Chalkokondulis. This was the first greek book to have been printed in Florence and also the most important greek incunabulum. The matrices belong to Damilas and are the ones that were also used in the printing of 'Epitomi' by Laskaris in 1476.

1488 The first book known to have used greek types in Holland is in Alexander de Villa Dei's Doctrinale, Pars I, printed at Deventer by Richard Pafraet.

1489 First printed edition of the Iliad and Odyssey in Greek. Homer, Opera, printed in Florence by Demetrius Damilas for Bernardus Nerlius.

1491 The first book known to have used greek types in Belgium is in Alexander de Villa Dei's Doctrinale, Pars II, printed by Thierry Martens at his Alost press.

1492 First known printing with greek type in France. It is 'Opera' by Virgil completed in Lyons by Antoine Lambillion.

1494-1496 Ianos Laskaris founds the first greek printing house in Florence. He hires Lorenzo di Alopa for the printing of greek texts -only with small and large epigraphical capitals letters designed by himself- and later with lowercase characters based on the hand of Dimitrios Damilas who had grown to become on the the most important scribes of his time. He prints eight books.

1495 Aldus Manutius in Venice, publishes his first greek text based on the handwriting of Immanuel Rhusotas, the 'Erotimata' of Laskaris. Punches cut by Fransesco Griffo. Four subsequent cuts more simplified. He works with Marcus Mousouru, Demetrio Duka and Ioanni Gregoropoulo. Aldus picks the everyday cursive hand of the time (Emmanuel Rhusotas) rather than the formal hand with numerous combinations and contractions. The diacritics form a separate line above the greek letters (patent rights).

1499-1500 The second greek printing house is founded in Venice by Nicholaos Vlastos and Zacharias Kalliergis. Kalliergis cuts a greek typeface based on his own handwriting. The printing house operated for only two years. The diacritics of the greek characters were joined with the letter, meaning they were one character and not separate ones. Kalliergis and Vlastos collaborated with the scholars Markos Mousouros, Ioannis Gregoropoulos among others. The first publication of Kallierges with the funding of Vlastos was the 'Mega Etimologikon'. They print four books on the whole before the termination of their partnership. The rest of the books were the 'Simplicius', 'Ammonius' and 'Galenus'.

1499 Editio Princeps of Francenco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. One of the most celebrated books for its remarkable illustrations in the Venetian classical style (the artist not yet identified), printed in Venice by Aldus Manutius.

1501 Aldus Manutius begins printing of his famous octavo classics series, using the italic type designed by Francesco Griffo da Bologna. First use of italic types.

1507 Gilles de Gourmont, the first cutter of Greek types in France, issues the first work to be printed in Greek from his Paris press containing the Book of sentences of the seven Greek sages, The golden verses of Pythagoras etc.

1509 The second printing attempt by Zacharias Kalliergis in Venice along with his second typeface based on his hand. He prints 4 works, 'Exepsalmata', 'Agapetus Diaconus', 'Horologion' and the first publication of 'Apokopos' by Bergadis. The last was printed by Nicholaos, Zacharias' son.

1513 'Batrachomyomachia' printed in Wittenberg by Johann Grunenberg (Greek and Latin version). The first complete attempt to print Greek in Germany.

1514 First use of arabic type in the 'Kitab Selat el Scoua'i' (Book of [Christian] prayers) printed at Fano by G. de Gregoriis.

1515 Zacharias Kalliergis in his third printing attempt, this time in Rome where he prints complete greek texts possibly using the types cut in 1509 or cutting new ones.

1516 Earliest printed edition of the New Testament in greek, printed in Basel by Johan Froben. Under the editorship of Desiderius Erasmus and dedicated to Pope Leo I, greek and latin running in parallel columns.

1514-1517 Arnaldo Guillen de Brocar. Complutensian Polyglot Bible, Complutensian Greek.

1517 Under the auspices of pope Leo I, Ianos Laskaris founds the Greek Gymnasium in Rome in 1514 where Zacharias Kalliergis works as a teacher followed by Markos Mousouros in 1516. In 1517 Ianos Laskaris founds the printing house of the Gymnasium where five important books were printed. Three are due to Laskaris and the two last to Arsenios Apostolis.

1521 The first printing effort of Andreas Kounadis from Patra in collaboration with Stefano Sabio and it was a 'Psalterion'. Kounadis founded a printing and publishing house in Venice where his publishing programme reinforced the printing of Greek books.

1536 The first printed map of Greece is printed by Nicholaos Sofianos in Venice, 'Totius Graeciae Descriptio' (Mizon Ellinismos kai Choros).

1540-1550 Claude Garamond with printer Robert Estienne. 'Grecs du Roy' based on the handwriting of Angelos Vergikios. Garamond spent 10 years in cutting the punches and striking the matrices for three sizes (20, 16 and 9 points - the 16 point type was the first to appear).

1543 First full Greek text to appear in England. Sir John Cheke's edition of 2 Homilies by St. John Chrysostom, printed by Reginald Wolfe.

1569-1573 Robert Granjon's Greek types for printer Christopher Plantin of Antwerp. At the same time Haultin also cuts greek types.

1586 First Greek book printed at the Oxford University Press, Homilies by St. John Chrysostom.

1595 First Greek books printed at Cambridge University Press.

1610-1612 The complete 8 volume edition of the St. John Chrysostom printed at Eton by John Norton. The type used was based closely on the Grecs du Roi obtained from Wechel at Frankfurt am Main.

1618 Appearance of the first properly- so-called - newspaper the undated coranto in Dutch printed at Amsterdam by Joris Veseler, probably about 16 June, and published by Caspar van Hilten.
note: 1605, De Nieuwe Tijdinghe printed in Amsterdam also claims to be the first newspaper. Also the 1609 newspapers, the Avisa, Relation oder Zeitung probably printed at Wolfenbüttel by Julius Adolph von Söhne; and the Relation; aller Fürnemen und gedenkwürdigen Historien, printed at Strassburg.

1627 Patriarch Cyril Loukaris mounted in Constantinople the first greek printing machine in Greece, which was purchased in London by the monk Nichodimo Metaxa of Kefallonia. Metaxas had learnt the printing trade in England and moved on to work in Constantinople for a year teaching the trade to the other monks under the auspices of the Patriarch. The printing office survived only for around two months and printed only one book, the 'Tou Makariotatou kai Sophotatou Patros imon Papa kai Patriarchi Alexandrias...Suntomi pragmatia peri Ioudeon'. This was the first greek book to have been printed in the East. In 1628 the Turks confiscated the printing house during the conflict between the Jesuits and the Catholics.

1642 The first Greek book printed at the Monastery of the Three Hierarchs in Moldavia, the' Decree of the Patriarch Parthenios'. Inspired by Dositheos, the patriarch of Jerusalem, Greek presses were founded in monasteries in Moldavia aiming at leveling the proselytizing policies of the Catholics. Moldavia and Wallachia set out to become the second successful Greek printing centres in the wider Eastern area, more precisely the area then controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

1642 Mezzotint invented in Germany by Ludwig von Siegen.

1670 John Fell, delegate of the Oxford University Press acquires the "Fell types" from Holland.

~1670 Nicholaos Glykus from Giannena, buys a printing house in Venice which moved on to represent the longest standing greek printing house. He works until his death in 1693 and prints 106 titles, mostly liturgical texts. The printing house continued to operate under the direction of his descendants until it was occupied by the french from 1797 to 1805 and the austrian from 1818 to 1843. The last book from the printing house of the Glykus was printed in 1854.

1688 Nicholaos Sarros from Ioannina founds the second most important greek printing house in Venice in collaboration with his brothers. Following his death in 1697 the printing house is bought by Antonio Bortoli.

1698 Heinrich Wetstein prints an edition of the New Testament in Greek in Holland. First Greek text without ligatures.

1690 The first press in Wallachia appeared at the Cathedral of Bucharest producing its first book, 'Handbook against the schism of the Papists'. This was a treatise by Meletios Pigas, patriarch of Alexandria.

1701 Johann Müller invents stereotyping.

1704 The first trilingual dictionary printed in Moscow by the Lichoudis Brothers. The Greek types were provided by Dositheos the patriarch of Jerusalem who failed to establish a printing house in Moscow.

1755 Dimitrios Theodosiou founds the thirst most important greek printing house in Venice. After his death the printing office passed on to Panos Theodosiou. The office ceased to operate in 1820.

1731 The monk Gregorios Konstantinidis who was also a printer founded in Moschopolis, North Epirus a printing house which operated for at least thirty years. He printed 15 books of which we know that are complete. This was the first attempt to operate a printing press under the Ottoman rule in the Greek East.

1751 The greek types of Alexander Wilson from Glaskow appear which were later revised for the the publication of Homer by the Foulis brothers in 1756 and were named Homer Greek. These types had very few (18) ligatures.

1756 The second operating phase of the printing house in Constantinople under the printer Panayiotis Kuriakidis. The house run for a short period of time producing a small quantity of publications using one typeface, Aldus' texto.

1759 An attempt to found a printing house in Agion Oros, in the Abbey of Hagia Lavra of which we know of one book the 'Eklogi tou Psaltirioy pantos...'. The printer Doukas Sotiris from Thassos (who had worked earlier in Iassio) cuts the types and the whole attempt was orarganised by the archbishop of Lavra, Kosmas Epidavrios.

1763 Publishing of the New Testament with types cut by John Baskerville for the Oxford Clarendon Press.

1764 At Fanari operates the printing office of the patriarchate under patriarch Samouil I. The first printed book was a 'Psalter' in 1768 by the typographer Panayotis Kuriakidis.

1780's The first Greek newspaper known to have been published. By Vendotis in Vienna, possibly a weekly edition. The contents of the first issue are unknown.

1784 Valentin Haüy, founder of the first school for the blind, prints the first book for the blind using a heavily embossed script character which would be read by touch.

1788 Giambattista Bodoni (Parma, Italy) publishes Manuale Tipografico presenting 34 greek typefaces. The inclined style was widely adopted by the German printers (widely known in Greece as 'Lipsias).

1787 From 1787 to 1820, 35 Greek books were printed in Trieste at seven of the city's presses owned by non Greeks.

1790-1797 In Vienna, the bi-weekly edition of 'Efimeris' from the first greek printing house by the brothers Markidi-Pouliou, the sole source of information for the Greeks within and outside the administrative boundaries of the Ottoman Empire of the time. Also the first greek newspaper of which we have samples. The printing house ceases to operate when the editors were accused of having supported Rhigas Velestinlis.

1797 Printing of the revolutionary pamphlet by Rhigas Ferraios which included a proclamation against the Ottoman rule, a declaration of civil rights, Thourios and the 'New Political Constitution for the residents of Roumeli, Asia Minor, the islands of the Aegean and the princedoms of Moldavia and Vlachia'.

1798 With the support of the king, patriarch Grigorios V establishes a printing house at Fanari. Their printing ventures served in supporting the work of the church and in reacting to the ideals of the Enlightenment. Their printer was Ioannis Pogoz from Armenia and the probably, first publication was the 'Egkuklios pros tous katoikous ton Ionion Nison'.

1798 Establishment of a printing house in Corfu after its occupancy by Napoleon in 1797, which functioned as a political instrument for the authorities and its publications were of a political caliber. The printing house continued to function even after the occupation of the island by the russian/turkish troops, the english troops after that and so on. The printing house ceased to operate in 1817

1798 Invention of lithography by Johann Aloys Senefelder, the first planographic process of printing.

1800 Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl of Stanhope invented an all iron press with a large platen worked by a combination of screw and compound levers. This press was very successful and was used to print 'The Times' newspaper.

1802 Richard Porson gets assigned by Cambridge University Press to design a new Greek. Porson Greek, cut by Richard Austin, dominated Greek printing in England.

1805 Ambroise Firmin Didot. The upright Didot Greek style (widely known in Greece as 'Apla'). In an epistle in 1804, Adamantios Korais reffers to the printing characters of Didot and their first use in 'Poikilin Istorian' by Aelianos.

1810 Establishment of a printing house in Zakinthos (the capital island of the Ionian Islands) by the English. This operates up until July 1824 when the greatest part of its equipment and stuff is being transfered to Corfu to be integrated to printing house there. Their publications were of a political caliber serving the demands of the administration.

1811 'Ermis o Logios'. Fortnightly Greek periodical published in Vienna by the Markidis-Pouliou brothers and the archimandrite of the Greek church of St. George in Vienna, Anthimos Gazis. Lasted for 10 years during which it produced far more issues than any pre-revolutionary Greek publication. This venture was inspired by Adamantios Korais and forms the main source of expression of the greek enlightenment in magazines.

1812 Nikolaos Glykus publishes his specimen 'Specimens and names of the characters of the Greek printing office of Nikolaos Glukys', in Venice.

1813 The Columbian hand press by George Clymer in Philadelphia was the second iron press after the one built by Stanhope. The massive cross beam, advantageously linked to the operating handle, is the principle unique to the Columbian as well as its extravagant decoration.

1819 Adamandios Korais initiates the operation of a printing house at the School of Chios. The types had been ordered from the Ambroise Firmin Didot and the printer was the german Weirofer. They print nine books up until its cessation thirty years later.

1819 A.F. DIdot's visit to the school of Kudonia at the coast of Asia Minor in 1817 gives birth to the idea of a printing house. Konstantinos Tombras is being sent to Paris to train under the Didot. He returns to the School in 1819 along with some printing material. We know of eight books to have been published in the School up until its cessation three years later.

1821 When Ypsilandis returns he also brings along typographic equipment that is being placed in Kalamata. They call for the Kudonian Konstantinos Tombras to work as a printer. The printing house will later be moved to Argos and then Korinthos. It is considered to be the first 'national' printing office.

1821 The first greek newspaper to have been printed in liberated Greece is being printed in Kalamata. 'Salpix Elliniki' by the publisher Theoklitos Farmakidis and the printer Konstantinos Tombras.

1822 Commencement of the installation of a printing house in Hydra by Iakovos Tobazis and the swiss Wasser, later to be joined by the Koundouriotis brothers and Iosif Kiappe. In 1824 they will use the printing equipment donated by Didot. In 1825 the printing house will move to Nafplio and commence the foundation of the 'Tupografia tis Dioikiseos'.

1822 Richard W. Cope invents the Albion hand press. Cope eliminated bizarre decoration, used a toggle instead of a beam for leverage, and employed a spring instead of a counterweight to raise the platen.

1822 Doctor William Church of Vermont, U.S.A. patents the earliest composing machine.

1823 Foundation of a printing house in Mesologgi with the typographic equipment that the Philhellenic Committee of London donates. Mavrokordatos, Byron and Leicester Stanhope. The printers were Mestheneas and Pavlos Patrikios. The house ceases to operate in 1826.

1824 Foundation of a printing house in Salamina under the efforts of Stanhope and the printer Varotzis. Shortly after, the house is being transferred to Athens and in 1825 is being transfered to Salamina where it will cease to operate in 1826.

1828 The 'Ethniki Tupografia' ('National Typography') will settle in Aegina and remain there until 1832.

1828 Establishment of the first greek private press by Konstantinos Tombras in Nafplio with various collaborators. In 1836-1839 the first annex in Patra.

1829 Louis Braille publishes in Paris the first embossed book enabling the reading for the blind.

1833 The 'Ethniki Tupografia' in Nafplio. They print the governments newspaper (1833-1834).

1834 The 'Ethniki Tupografia' is relocated in Athens. They print mainly state and office documents, proceedings of the National Congress, proceedings of the Parliament and the Senate, legislative classifications, school handbooks and literary works.

1834 Andreas Koromilas founds his printing house in Aegina, the largest, most productive and organised printing house in Greece in the 19th century. The equipment was purchased from Didot and the house was transfered in Athens in 1835. Koromilas imported stereotype in Greece, printing cheap books so they could be purchased by people from all social groups.

1842 The first lithographic workshop is being established in Greece.

1846 Richard Hoe's four cylinder rotary type revolving press first used to print a newspaper in Philadelphia.

1858 William Bullock develops in the USA the idea of printing a newspaper from a continuous roll of paper. It was first patented in Vienna by Alois Auer.

1865 William Bullock invented the web cylinder printing press which printed from a continuous roll of paper on both sides. A folding mechanism was added in 1868.

1873 In Athens under the direction of Dimitrios Koromilas (son of Andreas) comes the first issue of the first systematic Greek daily newspaper, 'Ephemeris'.

1875 In England the first lithographic offset press for printing on metal is being developed. The American Ira W. Rubel, a New York lithographer, is the first known person to use it for printing on paper in 1904.

1879 Karl Klic of Arnau invented the photomechanical intaglio process known as photogravure.

1885 Ottmar Mergenthaler patents his typesetting and typecasting machine known as Linotype, casting whole lines of type in the form of slugs. In 1886 New York Tribune issued the first newspaper in the world to be set by Linotype.

1885 Linn Boyd Benton patented his original punch cutting machine. It was an automatic borer attached to a pantograph which replaced traditional punch-cutting by hand. With this device, for the first time, a single set of drawings could be traced to cut matrices at a wide range of sizes, without the skills of the punchcutter.

1887 Tolbert Lanston invents the mechanical typesetting system called Monotype, producing blocks of text consisting of individual letters.

1896 One of the earliest patents for a method of composing alphabetic characters by photographic means was granted to E. Porzholt.

1897 The Electrotypograph composing and casting machine patened by C. Méray-Horvath of Budapest.

1900 Early 1900's linotype appears in Greece.

1904 Robert Proctor's Otter Greek published for the first time.

1904 Ira W.Rubel, a New York lithographer, commercially developed offset printing on paper. He designed a special press for the purpose which was built by the Potter Co. of New York.

1906 The Ludlow, a typecasting machine casting large size type for display purposes was invented by Washington I. Ludlow and marketed by the Ludlow Typograph Company in Chicago.

1910 Monotype's first Greek. Series 90 (upright) based on Didot's ,
Series 91 (inclined) based on Bodoni's, Series 92 (bold) based on series 91, but with a porsonic 'epsilon' and curved 'delta'.
Best known in Greece as 'Elzevir'.

1913 Porson Greek released by Monotype (Series 106) with minor changes in the design, especially the addition of inclined capitals contrary to the upright initially designed by Porson. The type was also acquired by American Linotype. Known in Greece as 'pelasgika'.

1914 The first Heidelberg machine was built by the Schnellpressenfabrik A.G. of Heidelberg. This was a platen machine. The cylinder Heidelberg -a single revolution machine- was first marketed in 1936.

1920 The Goss Company introduced into Britain the first of what is known as the Line type of newspaper press -a multiple low construction press and folder units in one line on floor level, as opposed to the Deck system, with one press above the other.

1924 Karpathakis establishes the first typefoundry in Greece.

1926 The process known as Aniline printing was introduced. In this process very fluid inks colored by aniline dyes are transferred from flexible rubber plates to a fast-moving web on a rotary press. It is used mainly for color printing on plastics, foils and fabrics and packaging. In 1952 aniline printing became generally known as flexography.

1927 Victor Scholderer's New Hellenic for the 'Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies' and cast by Lanston Monotype. It was modeled on the type used by Joannes Rubeus in the edition of Macrobius (1492). In Greece the type was used under the name 'Attica'.

1927 Jan Van Krimpen. Antigone Greek for Enschede.

1928 Turkey adopts the Latin script and prohibits the publication of books printed in Arabic.

1929 Eric Gill. Perpetua for Monotype (Series 283)

1937 Jan Van Krimpen. Romulus Roman

1938 Chester Carlson invents xerography (patened in1942).

1940's Monotype & Linotype shift inclined Greek typefaces to the role of italics and Monotype's Series 90 become the definite text typeface and Series 91 the equivalent italic (Linotype's equivalent Greek No2 Upright and Inclined).

1945 The basic principles of Xerography and Xeroprinting first set-out in the U.S. patents of Chester F.Carlson. Research on this new method of reproduction was carried out by the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio.

1950's Gill sans by the Monotype drawing office becomes the generic sans for the periodical press and advertising of the time (designed by the Monotype studio without the participation of the late Eric Gill)

1950's In 1887 Tolbert Lanston invents monotype which spread in Greece in the 50's.

1952 The first magazine printed with four colours using coloured films in Greece by Ioannis Magkouzos is 'Eklogi'.

1953 The typeface 'Attica' designed by Hermann Zapf for Stempel typefoundry.

1954 Theodoros Paraskevopoulos establishes his type foundry 'PAP'.

1954 Linotype and Stempel typefoundry produce 'Heraklit' designed by Hermann Zapf.

1956-1957 Times Roman Greek (series 565, 566, 567, 667 - upright, inclined, bold upright, bold inclined) by Monotype becomes one of the most successful Greek typefamilies.

1958 The Mergenthaler Linotype Company first demonstrated in Europe their 'Linofilm' at DRUPA, the international printing exhibition held at Düsseldorf in 1958. This is an adaptation of their hot-metal Linotype for filmsetting.

1970's Greek Optima by Hermann Zapf (1971) and the italics and bold in 1974. 'Helvetica' by Matthew Carter for Linotype. The first Greek typeface designed directly for phototypesetting. The rest of the Linotype's package consisted of Baskerville Greek, Century Schoolbook Greek and Souvenir Greek. Implementing features of the latin script onto Greek letterforms.

1970 The dot-matrix printer introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation, Massachusetts.

1976 The first commercial laser printer introduced, built by researcher Gary Starkweather of Xerox.

1982 Greece abandons the polytonic writing system.

1989-1990 Takis Katsoulidis. Appolonia and Katsoulidis, the first original Greek text typeface produced in the 20th century by a Greek designer for Agfa Hellas.

1992-3 Takis Katsoulidis and George Matthiopoulos of the Greek Font Society, collaborate in order to produce the digital typeface GFS Didot, one of the most widely used typefaces in Greece nowadays.

1995 Second Greek typeface designer to produce a Greek text typeface, George Matthiopoulos designs GFS Olga.

2000 Adobe releases Myriad Pro (Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly) and Minion Pro (Robert Slimbach) with a full Greek monotonic and polytonic character set.

2005 The Greek Font Society releases its typefaces as freeware via their website in open type format 'Didot', 'Bodoni', 'Olga' and 'New Hellenic' under the OFL License.

2005 Garamond Premier Pro by Robert Slimbach for Linotype. Greek monotonic and polytonic character set.