Linotype GmbH, the German office of the company, was to become the dominant offshoot. Through a relationship with the typefoundry D. Stempel AG (a company that was gradually acquired entirely), many of the 20th century's best type designs became its best-known - designs such as Optima and Palatino.
The company, as so many in the printing industry, endured a complex post-war history, during which printing technology went through two revolutions - first moving to phototypesetting, then to digital.
Now called Linotype Library, it is a subsidiary of the printing manufacturer and former rival, Heidelberg. The historic printing machinery being little more than museum pieces, the modern Linotype assets consist of a large library of type designs and trademarks, many the result of its large number of acquisitions, which it exploits by manufacturing digital typefaces. It frequently brings out new designs from established and new type designers.
See also Linotype machine