Publishing meets product: Monotype Fonts X UPEP
— The United Prime team
Eager to gain access to a large library of fonts without having to worry about licensing issues, Hong Kong based United Prime Educational Publishing turned to Monotype Fonts.
In 2022, with the backing resources and extensive expertise of parent company Sino United Publishing, United Prime Educational Publishing (United Prime) took over the majority of Pearson Education Asia Limited’s local publishing portfolio with the aim of bringing the business to the next level. United Prime publishes several hundreds of textbooks and e-learning products each year serving educational institutions from pre-primary all the way to senior secondary.
To satisfy evolving demands and meet the challenges of a modern world today, they have extended their offerings beyond traditional printed books to include eBooks, learning apps, and other teaching and learning materials and services such as webinars and public exam simulation. The company’s key market is made up of schools in Hong Kong, accounting for 90% of their customer base. The substantial number of publications needed each year and the broad spectrum of subjects covered means demand in the sector is high. This in turn calls for varied design options, and (perhaps crucially) the assurance that said options are all easily accessible.
In other words, they needed ready access to a large library of fonts, safe in the knowledge that said fonts would come with appropriate rights – for any and all of their publications, no matter the format (which in today’s world of publishing is varied to say the least).
That’s where Monotype comes in.
United Prime talked with our business team to determine which plan would suit them best, then set up a Monotype Fonts account in April 2023. “They listened to our needs and requirements, number of users, and the possible formats that our products will be published (whether it’s print, eBook, web, etc), and proposed the best license plan, so we can use all the fonts that we can find in Monotype without the worry of licensing issues.”
After a comprehensive training from our team, they were ready to go.
Through the platform, United Prime has access to a diverse selection of over 150,000 typefaces, ranging from iconic designs and contemporary releases to fonts crafted by renowned independent studios such as Latinotype and Mark Simonson, as well as in-house creations from the Monotype Studio. “We can always find the right font style for our products.”
United Prime enjoys an unlimited access to our font library and have been able to easily incorporate them into their projects. “The fonts offered by Monotype have supported us in our design of top-notch products that are suitable for our customers in an education setting.”
By quantity alone, Monotype Fonts has the edge!
With a multitude of fonts to choose from, it’s a guarantee that the right font for any given project will be there. Designed using AI technology, our search and tag features accurately map typographical features to different moods, feelings, and other descriptors, and makes it easy to find the right font at any given time. “The Monotype font portal is very user friendly. We can search the fonts by filter, tab, language, etc. And just activate the font by one click.”
But Monotype Fonts is more than its catalogue.
Thanks to its extensive font management features, United Prime has been able to set roles, organise team members and project designers, add tags for fonts, and import their own fonts to their company Monotype account.
And since they can store all their font files in one place, it has saved them a lot of time they might have otherwise spent searching for files, “Monotype can automatically sync and activate the fonts so we don’t have to spend time replacing or finding fonts. The filter feature also helps us to find our target font style easily and efficiently.” The company has noticed an increase in operational efficiency since integrating Monotype Fonts to their process. “The time saved through Monotype Fonts allowed us to focus more on content development, which results in more quality learning products published.”
Coupled with proper licensing for all font usage through Monotype Fonts, the company can now avoid some serious headaches down the line. “Monotype can help us clear the license right for the fonts, and also provide a wide range of fonts for selection. This facilitates the font management across the company level, at the same time steering us clear of any risks of copyrights infringements regarding the use of fonts.”
When asked if they would recommend the product to other businesses, United Prime replied “We think Monotype is suitable for larger-scale businesses that hold a high standard on the proper use and management of fonts for its brand image and overall product quality.”
United Prime believe in “innovating to learn and learning to innovate”, and with Monotype Fonts they can do just.