The Oberthur printing was founded by François-Charles Oberthur, a lithographer and typographical printer who was born in 1818 in Strasbourg. His father, François-Jacques Oberthur, was an engraver who ran a printer's press in Strasbourg with Senefelder, the inventor of lithography.

In 1838, François-Charles Oberthur moved to Rennes where he qualified as a lithographer in 1842.

In 1842 he founded a press with a partner, and then bought the partner out in 1855.

The Oberthur printing was :

• Virtually the exclusive supplier for the Western Railway Company
• The first telephone directory publisher
• The exclusive supplier of the Post Office almanac

At the same time the press also specialized in high quality work such as colour plates featuring flowers, butterflies and beetles. The collection of beetles can now be seen in the Museum of Natural History in Paris and the butterflies in the British Museum in London.

The Oberthur printing devised the color scheme that was used as an official reference for tints.

The Oberthur printing continued to expand till the Second World War and had three departments :

• Printing of vintage articles;
• Book printing, especially school books and encyclopedias;
• Security printing mainly concerned with the printing of share and bond certificates and checks.

Oberthur began printing banknotes in 1940 when the Bank of France had difficulty in obtaining supplies and needed Oberthur's services in banknote manufacturing.

In 1984, Jean-Pierre Savare took over the security printing activity in 1984 and named it Oberthur Fiduciaire.