Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a mechanical loom in 1801 that used the holes punched in pasteboard punch cards to control the weaving of patterns in fabric. He unleashed a concept that would result in the digital age.

Charles Babbage would later apply the idea to his Analytical Engine.  In 1877, Herman Hollerith joined the U.S. Census Bureau as a statistician. He encountered the problems of analyzing the large amounts of data generated by the U.S. census. An idea came from Dr. John Shaw Billings: "There ought to be a machine for doing the purely mechanical work of tabulating statistics...something on the principle of the Jacquard loom, whereby holes in a card regulate the pattern to be woven."

The Monotype's finished product is a spool of paper perforated with small holes like a piano roll. This spool of paper is next taken to the casting unit where it produces the thousands of individual letters and spaces for justified lines of type.