ermann
apf
Creating the future from the past
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hen Hermann Zapf was a young boy growing up in Darmstadt, Germany, he had dreams of becoming an engineer. Sadly, these dreams would never be fully realized because Zapf was unable to attend the institute of technology; a lack of funds and the political atmosphere of Germany at the time made it impossible. Instead, Zapf remained in Darmstadt and began a printing apprenticeship. v While in Darmstadt, an exhibition of Rudolph Koch’s work opened Zapf’s eyes to the world of typography and calligraphy. He went on to study calligraphy; then after his internship, he moved to Frankfurt where he taught himself about type design. Eventually, these self-imposed skills would lead Zapf to creating some of the most recognizable and widely used typefaces of our time. v Much of Zapf’s success comes from his vast knowledge of past typography, his own skill as a calligrapher, and his ability to draw from these sources of inspiration to create new and modern designs that are truly timeless. He warmly welcomed new technologies and methods of type design allowing himself and his designs to evolve with them. Zapf’s work spans from classic old style faces to modern sans serifs. By looking at three distinct type designs, one can understand the scope of Zapf’s diverse portfolio as well as his deftness in understanding and utilizing available technologies to create groundbreaking typefaces (Zapf 7-8).
“...there are few contemporary faces which match Palatino in freshness, originality, and in unity of total impression” — J. Biegelsien
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ne of Zapf’s first and most widely used font is an old style humanist face that exhibits an influence from Zapf’s calligraphic background as well as from Renaissance letterforms (Biegeleisen 142). Originally, Zapf began work on a broad pen styled roman face design he called Novalis, but after a few experimental projects he changed his focus to a second design; that design was Palatino. This classic font family is named after Giovanbattista Palatino, an Italian master of calligraphy from the sixteenth century and a man much admired by Zapf. The switch was made because Zapf decided that Palatino not only was much more graceful of a font, but also more contemporary and forward thinking. Work on Novalis was discontinued completely and work on a full font family for Palatino began (Zapf 21). v In all of his work, Zapf strives to create type designs that are legible and suitable to that which they will be used for. Palatino was designed when all
Type Designs by Hermann Zapf: 1938 Gilgengart v 1939 Alkor Notenschrift v 1942 Musica Roman v 1946 Novalis v 1948 Palatino v 1949 Micelangego Tilting v
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print was done with metal type using a gravure or offset printing technique, so Zapf designed with this restriction in mind. He gave the roman version some heft with a heavier weight and used large open counters, similar to those found in Renaissance and Roman inscriptions (Blackwell 193). The weight allowed for sufficient surface area for the ink to adhere to and the large open counters took away the risk of a c becoming an o or any other letters becoming distorted due to over-inking. v Another feature of Palatino that has added to its popularity is the flow and ease of the typeface as a whole, which stems from the design’s humanist and handwritten qualities. The thick thin relationship in letters such as the R and P show off Zapf’s calligraphic background and their just barely closed counters lend to the effortlessness of the typeface. Even small details like the difference in counter shape between the b and the d show how Zapf truly thinks through each letter to ensure a graceful flow between them. Other humanist or imperfect qualities of Palatino are the lack of serifs on the center arms of the E and F as well as the asymmetry of the W’s serifs or the arms of the Y. Despite
Aldus Book. A lighter version of Palatino especially used for book work.
all of this, the typeface remains one of the most widely used and that popularity lies in the way the letters interact, not how they stand alone. “The strange thing about this face is that each letter viewed by itself never looks as good as letters combined in words...Yet in spite of these apparent inconsistencies, there are few contemporary faces which match Palatino in freshness, originality, and in unity of total impression” (Biegeleisen 142).
1950 Sistina, Primavera Ornaments v 1952 Melior, Virtuosa I, Sapphire, Janson v 1953 Virtuosa II, Fancy Bodoni Rules, Attika Greek, Artemis Greek, Phidias Greek
PALATINO 3
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Optima Roman. The foundry proof sheet of the 36pt. with corrections and notes for the casting
apf’s next major type design and his self-proclaimed favorite is Optima, which toed the line between a classic Roman face and a more contemporary sans serif. On a trip to Florence, Italy, Zapf was greatly inspired by inscriptions he saw on the walls of churches and used this inspiration to design a type that would be, “a good, readable face, which would not be as monotonous and tiring as a normal sans serif, simple and self explanatory in its forms” (Zapf 28). Trying not to give the face calligraphic characteristics, while still retaining the successful thick and thin variants of roman types, Zapf created Optima. When it was debuted, Optima was an instant classic in part because of its use of the timeless roman designs tested over the ages, and because of Optima’s unique and fresh take on a sans serif font. Optima broke the uniformity and heaviness that many geometric and neogrotesque sans serifs are attributed with and provided a exciting new idea of what a sans serif can be (Blackwell 201). v Like Palatino, Optima was designed with legibility as Zapf’s top priority, and the variation of stroke width definitely achieves a readability above other san serifs. This
v 1954 Aldus, Kompakt, Mergenthaler, Janson v 1956 Alahram Arabic Shadowed v 1957 Trajanus Cyrillic v 1958 Optima v 1963 Hunt v 1966 Linofilm Melior
4 OPTIMA
“The well-balanced shape of the stems is contrary to the digital principle, especially in low resolutions” is especially true when used as body text. Obviously, these two fonts differ in that one is a serif font, Palatino, and the other is not, Optima, but the two are more similar than normal serifs and sans serifs. Both fonts are considered to be humanist, or have somewhat irregular or imperfect proportions to the letter forms, and both offer good legibility. Also, the two faces have a similar look and feel due to their shared inspired of classic letterforms from the Italian Renaissance and Roman inscriptions. Optima, however, has more of a straight vertical stress on letters such as the O and the Q where as Palatino uses an angled stress. v Although Optima was designed for metal type, Zapf jumped on the chance to digitize the font when the technology became available. Throughout his career, Zapf would embrace new technologies unlike many classically trained type designers who wanted to keep things the
A modified version of a roman in the direction of a simplifed Optima.
way they were. This excitement and openness towards new technology gave Zapf the ability to master new ways to create fonts, but also provided new challenges that often come with new methods. With Optima he had a hard time recreating the grace and elegance of the strokes using limited pixels. “The well-balanced shape of the stems is contrary to the digital principle, especially in low resolutions” (Zapf 103). Zapf always would design for the circumstances his typefaces encountered, but with this project he had not done that. Optima was meant to be a metal type and it just did not transfer to the digital realm. In 2003, however, computer technology had advanced enough where Optima could be created digitally with a high enough resolution so the strokes and stems retained their grace. An expanded font family, Optima Nova, was issued by the Linotype Library with the help from fellow designer Akira Kobayashi (Macmillan 188-189).
v 1967 Jeannette v 1970 Hallmark Uncial, Hallmark Stratford v 1972 Scriptura, Arno, Crown v 1974 Orion v 1975 World Book v 1976 Marconi, Comenius
OPTIMA 5
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ith the new opportunities and abilities the computer presented, Zapf also started work on Zapfino, which is a calligraphic font based on Zapf’s handwriting. In 1944 he served in World War II, and it is from the writings in his sketchbook while on duty that originates the font. With metal type or even photocomposition, the complicated glyphs and overlapping strokes of a true calligraphic font would be near impossible. Because the computer is able to automate ligatures and glyph variations as well as many other features that makes calligraphic fonts a possibility, Zapf could finally use his skills as a calligrapher to create a type design. After a few bumps in the road, Zapfino was released in 1998 with the Linotype foundry (Adams 183-184). Since then, additions have been made to include variant glyphs and ligatures furthering Zapfino’s beauty and elegance.
Different versions of Zapfino: Zapfino with full ligation, without full ligation, and Zapfino Ornament
Examples of ligatures within the font
v 1977 Zapf International v 1978 Zapf Dingbats, Edison v 1979 Zapf Chancery v 1983 AMS Euler, Aurelia v 1986 Zapf Renaissance Antiqua,
6 ZAPFINO
“Hermann Zapf fortunately has inherited the great typographic and calligraphic traditions of Germany; but he has also a deep sensitivity to nature, the analytical mind of the scientist, a humanistic concern, and a hand blessed by God” — Carl Zahn
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apf began his career with type by studying the masters of calligraphy and then becoming one himself. His long and prolific career came full circle when Zapfino brought true calligraphy to the digital realm. His other fonts have proven time and time again to be classics that have retained their freshness and uniqueness after all these years. By looking to the past for inspiration and using the most modern technologies available, Zapf was able to make a name for himself. Carl Zahn points to this combination of historic or organic designs with a knowledge
of contemporary ideas and technologies as his secret to success. He states, “Hermann Zapf fortunately has inherited the great typographic and calligraphic traditions of Germany; but he has also a deep sensitivity to nature, the analytical mind of the scientist, a humanistic concern, and a hand blessed by God” (Zapf 10). v Zapf’s boyhood dream to become an engineer did not exactly come true, but in essence, what Zapf does with his design work is engineering. Like Zahn has said, Zapf is deeply analytical and is able to understand and accept limitations yet within the limitations he still creates beautiful and timeless designs that will continue to be classics for years to come.
URW Sans Serif v 1998 Zapfino v 2002 Optima nova v 2003 Zapfino Extra v 2005 Palatino nova v 2006 Palatino Sans v 2009 Virtuosa Classic
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Citations Adams, William F. “There Is No End: Omega and Zapfino.” TUGboat 24.3 (2003): 183-99. Print. Biegeleisen, J. I. Art Directors’ Workbook of Type Faces; for Artists, Typographers, Letterers, Teachers & Students. New York: Arco Pub., 1976. Print. Blackwell, Lewis. 20th-century Type. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2004. Print. Macmillan, Neil. A-Z of Type Designers. London: Laurence King, 2006. Print. Meggs, Philip B., and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006. Print. Zapf, Hermann, and Carl Zahn. Hermann Zapf & [and] His Design Philosophy: Selected Articles and Lectures on Calligraphy and Contemporary Developments in Type Design, with Ill. and Bibliographical Notes, and a Complete List of His Typefaces. Chicago [Ill.: Society of Typographic Arts, 1987. Print.
Body: Optima Regular10/14, Zapf Dingbats 10/14 (Ornament) Caption: Optima Italic 7/8.4 Type Design List: Optima Bold 7/8.4 (Year), Italic (Name), Zapf Dingbats 7/8.4 (Ornament) Pull Quotes: Optima Bold 12/14 & Optima Bold 18/24
Designed by Chris Ryan