Johannes, known as "John" to his English-speaking friends, has an extensive background in developing font software. He began his career with D. Stempel AG in 1983 drawing typefaces and moved to digital typeface design and development while working at Linotype in Germany and then Monotype in the UK. Since 1994 John has operated his own design studio and has worked with the Ascender team since 2004 on many font projects. John will work from his office in Germany.

"Johannes brings a wealth of experience in multilingual type design and font engineering which will help us better serve our German customers," said Ira Mirochnick, president of Ascender. "Johannes has also operated his own business since 1994, which has given him the necessary business experience to effectively represent Ascender in Europe."

"I am proud to expand my role with the Ascender team," said Johannes Birkenbach. "My local presence will help European software & hardware developers, and also enterprises that are deploying fonts in application & web servers. I understand the challenges of making fonts look good on screen, from mobile phones to set top boxes, and look forward to offering Ascender's capabilities to companies in Germany and throughout Europe," he added.

About Ascender
Ascender Corporation is a leading provider of advanced font products and innovative applications for mobile devices. Ascender's founders are font industry experts and have been involved in developing many of the most important and influential fonts used in computers and mobile devices. Ascender provides multilingual, custom font development and mobile phone applications for a wide range of customers including creative professionals, enterprises and hardware & software developers. Ascender also provides fonts for download to graphic designers through the http://www.AscenderFonts.com website and to consumers through the http://www.FontMarketplace.com website.