With no success in Germany, Zapf went to the US where he lectured about his ideas in computerized typesetting, and was invited to speak at Harvard University in 1964. His ideas were considered radical, not taken seriously in Germany, and rejected by the Darmstadt University of Technology, where Zapf lectured between 19. Zapf worked on typography for computer programs from the 1960s onwards. His largest calligraphic project was to write out the “Preamble to the United Nations Charter” in four languages, commissioned by the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1960. Zapf did not work extensively as a calligrapher. In the 1980s Zapf worked with Bitstream to make versions of many of his prior typefaces, including Palatino, Optima and Melior, all with “Zapf” in their new names. In 1999, Microsoft worked with Zapf and Linotype to develop a new, authorized version of Palatino for Microsoft, called Palatino Linotype. At a 1994 conference a panel discussion on designers’ rights he criticized the plagiarism of Palatino. In 1993, Zapf resigned from ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) over what he viewed as its hypocritical attitude toward unauthorized copying by prominent ATypI members. Monotype’s Book Antiqua shipped with Microsoft Office and is often considered an imitation of Palatino. Zapf’s typefaces have been widely copied, usually against his will. Zapf disliked its name, which was invented by the marketers at Stempel. Optima, a flared sans-serif, was released by Stempel in 1958.

Palatino became better known after it became one of the core 35 PostScript fonts in 1984, bundled with virtually all PostScript devices from laser printers to imagesetters. Palatino was named after the 16th century Italian writing master Giambattista Palatino. His most famous typefaces, Palatino and Optima, were designed in 19, respectively. He designed types for hot metal composition, phototypesetting, and digital typography for use in desktop publishing. Most of Zapf’s work as a graphic artist was in book design. In 1951 he married Gudrun von Hesse, who taught at the school of Städel in Frankfurt. He returned to Frankfurt in 1947, where the type foundry Stempel offered him a position as artistic head of their printshop.įrom 1948 to 1950, Zapf taught calligraphy at the Arts and Crafts School in Offenbach, giving lettering lessons twice a week to two classes of graphics students. Zapf taught calligraphy in Nuremberg in 1946. His eyesight was so good that he could write letters 1 millimeter in size without using a magnifying glass, and this skill probably prevented him from being commissioned back into the army. He was sent to train as a cartographer where he drew maps of Spain. He had developed heart trouble and was given a desk job, writing camp records and sports certificates in Fraktur. Stempel, AG, and Linotype GmbH of Frankfurt, and in 1938, designed his first printed typeface for them, a fraktur type called Gilgengart. He came into contact with the type foundries D. Zapf bought two books to teach himself calligraphy. This exhibition gave him his first interest in lettering. In 1935, he attended an exhibition in Nuremberg in honor of typographer Rudolf Koch. They allowed him to become a retoucher, and Zapf began his four-year apprenticeship in February 1934. He was interviewed by the last company in the telephone directory. His teachers noticed his skill in drawing and suggested that he become a lithographer. He left school in 1933 for a career in electrical engineering but was not able to attend the Ohm Technical Institute in Nuremberg due to the political regime of the time and needed to find an apprenticeship. He was a warm, genuine, honest man and we will all miss him. Thirty years later I would hold his professorship at RIT.

Those who stole Palatino from the hot metal version had something different from those who stole it from the phototypesetting version. One day I got up the nerve to ask “Mr Zapf, what do you do?” He replied, “I correct the errors of my youth.” For example, the lowercase y had a curved calligraphic descender. He was adapting Palatino for the Linofilm. I was the mail boy at the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in Brooklyn, NY and was delivering the mail to his cubicle on the 8th floor. His typefaces include Palatino and Optima. He was married to calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. Hermann Zapf was the preeminent worldwide typeface designer and calligrapher who lived in Darmstadt, Germany.

Optima font history