The first digital computer font was called "ITC Avant-Garde". It was created in 1970 by Tom Carnase and released in 1978 by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC). Avant-Garde was designed as a phototype font, a technology that predated digital type. Phototypesetting was a process in which characters were projected through lenses and printed onto paper. The ITC Avant-Garde phototype font was one of the first fonts to be created specifically for use in digital typography, and it quickly became one of the most popular digital fonts of the time.