In the early 1950s, Czech type foundries were nationalized and merged into a single state-owned company Grafotechna1 located in in Prague. As a result of borders closing in the Eastern Bloc and also due to a lack of foreign currency, the purchase of type, printing and typesetting machines from abroad withered up. Supplies of type quickly deteriorated through use and wear and tear in printing. Production was to be governed for many long years by heavy-handed socialist planning. The Grafotechna type foundry was the only producer and distributor of type to all printers in communist Czechoslovakia.
