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Linotype Optima® nova


The first sketches for Optima on a 1000 Lire banknote.
The first sketches for Optima on a 1000 Lire banknote.

Introduction

Sketches for Optima® were first done on a 1000 Lire banknote in 1950. Not having any paper to make sketches of inscriptions in Santa Croce in florence, Hermann Zapf used a banknote. In 1952 the first drawings were finished after careful legibility tests for a typeface. The type was cut by the famous punchcutter August Rosenberger at the D. Stempel AG typefoundry in Frankfurt and produced also in matrices for the Linotype typesetting machines. Unfortunately no real Italic was manufactured, but only an oblique version of the roman.
The basic idea of Optima® was to develop a typeface between a sans-serif like Futura® and a classical Roman like Bodoni, To avoid the monotony of the straight lines of an ordinary Sans-serif the stems have slightly curved out lines, typical for all Optima alphabets. This makes the elegance for the various Optima designs. After 50 years since the beginning of Optima a complete redesign was made named Linotype Optima nova in producing digital alphabets without technical compromises.
The careful work of the new designs was done in close collaboration of Hermann Zapf with the Japanese type designer and computer expert Akira Kobayashi from Tokyo. All Optima alphabets were new shaped and additional weights had been added, like Linotype Optima nova Titling, capital letters with special and unusual letter combinations and ligatures. Optima nova Titling is a welcome font for headlines, logos and advertising purposes.

Linotype Optima nova is available for Macintosh and PC on a CD for both platforms. All weights contain an integrated Euro symbol.

Optima® nova, along with Avenir® Next, Linotype Compatil®, Eurostile® Next, Frutiger® Next, Sabon® Next, Linotype Syntax®, Linotype Syntax® Letter, Linotype Syntax® Serif and Linotype Univers®, belongs to the fonts of the Linotype Platinum Collection.
These fonts were carefully digitized and have the high quality demanded by professional typography. All fonts of the Platinum Collection were produced according to the Linotype tradition of quality.
Linotype and its authorized partners offer these fonts only as complete typeface families on Platinum Collections CDs.

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Step Inside Design article issue January/February 2003 about Optima nova is available as pdf file. Please download:
pdf file english (59,3 kb)
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Optima™ nova CD pour Mac OS et Windows
All OpenTypeWindows TrueTypeWindows PostScriptMac PostScriptMac TrueType
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Prix: 1 199,00 US$
   
 
     
Optima nova® famille de polices (Platinum Collection)
Données numériques de: Linotype
OpenType ProWindows TrueTypeWindows PostScriptMac PostScript
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  Optima nova® famille de polices  
     
Optima® famille de polices (Linotype Originals)
Données numériques de: Linotype
OpenType StdWindows TrueTypeWindows PostScriptMac PostScript
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  Optima® famille de polices  
     

Frutiger, Sabon, Syntax and Univers are trademarks of Linotype Corp. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions in the name of Linotype Corp. or its licensee Linotype GmbH. Compatil, Optima and Optima nova are trademarks of Linotype GmbH registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions.

Futura is a registered trademark of Bauer Types SA.

Pour obtenir encore plus d’information, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter :

Téléphone :+49 (0) 6172 484-418
Fax :+49 (0) 6172 484-429
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Page édité dernièrement : 2008-04-09