Italian poet and author, Francesco Pastonchi was commissioned to produce a new edition of the Italian Classics but was unable to find types which satisfied his needs. He decided to embark on designing a new typeface, assisted by Professor Eduardo Cotti at the Royal School of Typography in Torino. Early printed works, manuscripts and inscriptions were carefully studied before drawings were presented to Monotype for matrix production. A process of careful refinement of the design was carried out in the Monotype Type Drawing Office before the typeface was ready for manufacture. Pastonchi is a Venetian style face with a fresh, almost exotic appearance, ideally suited to classical works such as poetry and short stories. The Pastonchi font family has beautiful character shapes that also make excellent display and advertising copy.

Franko Luin, Odense's designer, on this typeface: With Odense I entered the field where Optima reigns in royal majesty. The first question I received was, in fact, why I designed another Optima. Look closely: Odense has as much in common with Optima as Garamond with Baskerville. Am I right? Odense Neon is a special variant that can be used for logos or single words. I had the idea for it when I noticed that the neon tubes in a sign over a store only partially followed the characters. The name comes from the Danish town Odense, the town of the famous storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, author of, e.g., 'The Little Mermaid.' Odense is also the place where the first book in the Nordic countries was printed, the 'Breviarium Ottoniense', in 1482.