Shakespeare™ Font Family

Shakespeare™ Roman More details ...

Shakespeare™ Italic More details ...

German designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse created the following fonts: Alcuin™ (1991), Ariadne™ (1954), Carmina™ (1986), Christiana® (1991), Colombine™ (1991), Diotima™ (1952), Nofret® (1984) Shakespeare™ (1968), Smaragd™ (1953). Please take a look at the personal designer portrait of Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse.

The German bookbinder, calligrapher, and type designer Gudrun Zapf von Hesse originally designed Shakespeare for Hallmark Cards in 1967-68. Now available in digital format, Shakespeare is a vivid calligraphic face, with both regular and italic styles. Shakespeare's letterforms could be described as semi serif: not all entry or exit strokes are serifed. Rather, the serifs in Shakespeare act as flowing, visual connectors, leading the eye quickly from left to right across the line of text (see the capital H, for example). Shakespeare's letters also have high x-heights, with equal-length ascenders and descenders.

All of Zapf von Hesse's typefaces are calligraphic in nature-yet at the same time very suitable for text and body copy (especially in sizes ranging from 12-14 point). If you like Shakespeare, take a look at Alcuin, Ariadne, Carmina, Columbine, Diotima, and Smaragd.

Additionally, a unique type anthology, The Gudrun and Hermann Zapf Collection, is now available. This anthology contains all of the typefaces from Gudrun Zapf von Hesse available from Linotype, as well as those of her husband, Hermann Zapf.