Type Design
Zapf designed types for various stages of printing technology, including hot metal composition, phototypesetting (also called "cold type"), and finally digital typography for use in desktop publishing. His two most famous typefaces, Palatino and Optima, were designed in 1948 and 1952, respectively. Palatino was designed in conjunction with August Rosenberger, with careful attention to detail. It was named after 16th century Italian writing master Giambattista Palatino. Optima, a flared sans-serif, was released by Stempel in 1958. Zapf disliked its name, which was invented by the marketers at Stempel.
Zapf was not given many jobs in calligraphy. The largest one was writing out the Preamble to the United Nations Charter in four languages, commissioned by the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1960 for $1000.
Read more about this topic: Hermann Zapf
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