Born in Jaén, Spain, Antonio de Espinosa (Antonium de Spinosa) first arrived in Mexico in 1550 as a letter smelter and type cutter for Juan Pablos. After a few years, Espinosa successfully petitioned the Spanish Crown to repeal the printing monopoly that Juan Pablos had in Mexico, which was to expire in 1559.

As seen in Fray Bartolome de de Ledesma's Septem nouæ Legis sacramentis Summarium (1566), Antonio de Espinosa introduced the practice of printing a coat of arms on the title pages of books, as was common practice in the Iberian Peninsula. Espinosa is also known for introducing other types of engravings that had not been previously seen. In 1554, he cut and used the first Roman and Italic types. At the end of the 16th century, both fonts replaced the Gothic type that Juan Pablos had previously used. Antonio de Espinosa died in 1575.

Medina, José Toribio, Guillermo Feliú Cruz, and José Zamudio Zamora. Historia de la imprenta en los antiguos dominios españoles de América y Oceanía, v. 1. Santiago de Chile: Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico José Toribio Medina, 1958. pp. 100-107.

Zulaica Gárate, Román. Los franciscanos y la imprenta en México en el siglo XVI. México: Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1991.