Typographers International Association

Printing and typesetting trade organization.

This trade organization was founded as the International Trade Composition Association in 1920 as an affiliate of the United Typothetae of America (an employing printers association), to represent the interests of typesetters and typesetting companies within the printing industry in the U.S. and Canada. In 1941 the organization was renamed the International Typographic Composition Association, and in 1980 it took the name Typographers International Association. Until 1996, it retained the ITCA acronym alongside its more recent TIA identity. Thereafter some members reorganized as the Graphic Arts Professional Association. These changes of name reflect the varying patterns of work within the printing industry as it moved from metal to film to digital composition and eventually to the disestablishment of most independent typesetting houses. A brief association history was published in 1995 as The TIA 75th Anniversary Commemorative.