Fonts of Hermann Zapf in the Linotype Library

Orion™
Hermann Zapf made his first scetches for Orion in 1963. Zapf’s aim was to create a neutral textface which can be ideally used as a newspaper face. Its strokethickness and open letterforms also fits well for book and magazine production. The final two weights of Orion were released in 1974 for the Linofilm photocomposing machine.


Optima™
Optima was designed by Hermann Zapf and is his most successful typeface. In 1950, Zapf made his first sketches while visiting the Santa Croce church in Florence. He sketched letters from grave plates that had been cut about 1530, and as he had no other paper with him at the time, the sketches were done on two 1000 lire bank notes.
These letters from the floor of the church inspired Optima, a typeface that is classically roman in proportion and character, but without serifs. The letterforms were designed in the proportions of the Golden Ratio. In 1952, after careful legibility testing, the first drawings were finished.
The type was cut by the famous punchcutter August Rosenberger at the D. Stempel AG typefoundry in Frankfurt. Optima was produced in matrices for the Linotype typesetting machines and released in 1958. With the clear, simple elegance of its sans serif forms and the warmly human touches of its tapering stems, this family has proved popular around the world. Optima is an all-purpose typeface; it works for just about anything from book text to signage. It is available in 12 weights and 4 companion fonts with Central European characters and accents.


Optima™ nova
In 2002, when it was finally possible to produce digital alphabets without technical limitations and compromises, and more than 50 years after the first sketches of Optima, an expansion and redesign of the Optima family was completed and released as Optima nova .
Hermann Zapf and Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi, Type Director at Linotype, collaborated on the project, which included re-working of the existing weights and the addition of several new weights for a total of 40 fonts. Small caps, Old style Figures, light, heavy, and condensed fonts have been added.
The original Optima was never manufactured with a real italic, only an oblique version of the roman. Optima nova has a complete range of beautifully designed real italics; the new italic forms , of the e, f and g are especially notable.
The titling face includes capital letters with special and unusual letter combinations and ligatures, making it an excellent choice for headlines, logos and advertising purposes. Optima continues to be an all-purpose typeface; and Optima nova works for just about anything from book text to signage.
Optima nova is part of the Linotype Platinum Collection . .
Get more information about Optima nova.


Palatino™
Palatino is probably the most universally admired and used of HermannZapf´s type designs. In 1950, it was punchcut in metal by August Rosenberger at D. Stempel AG typefoundry in Frankfurt am Main, and then adapted for Linotype machine composition. Zapf optimized Palatino’s design for legibility by giving it open counters and carefully weighted strokes, producing a typeface that was legible even on the inferior paper of the post-World War II period. The font was named after Giambattista Palatino, a master of calligraphy from the time of Leonardo da Vinci. Palatino is a typeface based on classical Italian Renaissance forms. It has become a modern classic in itself, and is popular among professional graphic designers and amateurs alike. Palatino works well for both text and display typography. The new Palatino Linotype is an OpenType version with many newly designed characters in four large character sets; including extensive support for Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Central European languages.


Palatino™ nova
Hermann Zapf and Akira Kobayashi redeveloped Palatino for the 21st Century, creating Palatino nova. Released by Linotype in 2005, the Palatino nova family is part of Linotype’s Platinum Collection. Palatino nova includes several weights (Light, Regular, Medium, and Bold), each with companion italics. Four styles (Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic) have Greek and Cyrillic glyphs built into their character sets. The Palatino nova family also includes revised versions of Aldus (now called Aldus nova), as well as two titling weights. The first titling weight, Palatino nova Titling, is based on Hermann Zapf’s metal typeface Michelangelo, including Greek glyphs from Phidias Greek. The heavier titling weight, Palatino nova Imperial, is based on Sistina.
The fonts in the Palatino nova family support all 48 Western, Central, and Eastern European languages. Additional features: ligatures and historical ligatures, Small Caps, ornaments, and a range of numerals (proportional & tabular width lining and Old style Figures, fractions, inferiors, and superiors).
Get more information about Palatino nova.


Saphir™
Saphir also known as Sapphire and the Festliche Ziffern ( Festive Numerals ) were designed by Hermann Zapf in 1950 for D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt. It is richly ornamented and is reminescent of the types designed by Fournier in the eighteenth century. The decoration is based on leaf forms. The font Saphir includes the "Festliche Ziffern".


Sistina™
Sistina, designed in 1950, was first named Aurelia Titling. It is a heavy supplement to the Michelangelo Titling based on studies of inscriptions in Rome. First release in hotmetal at D. Stempel AG, Frankfurt in 1951. Sistina was originally an all caps font. The digital version from Linotype contains small caps. In 2005, Hermann Zapf and Linotype created a revised version of Sistina now named as "Palatino Imperial" in the Palatino nova type family, a Platinum Collection product from Linotype.


Vario™
Vario is a bold brush-based design. Vario offers superb emphasis for use in headlines and displays. It is availble in both regular and italic styles. Vario was first produced in 1982 for the Digiset typesetting system, manufactured by the German company Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell GmbH.