Jump to content

Optima

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, seeOptima (disambiguation).
Optima
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationHumanist
Designer(s)Hermann Zapf
FoundryStempel
Linotype
Date released1958
VariationsOptima Nova

Optimais ahumanist sans-serif typefacedesigned byHermann Zapfand released by the D. Stempel AG foundry,Frankfurt,West Germanyin 1958.

Though classified as asans-serif,Optima has a subtle swelling at the terminals suggesting a glyphicserif.Optima was inspired byclassical Roman capitalsand the stonecarving onRenaissance-period tombstones Zapf saw inFlorenceon a 1950 holiday to Italy.[1]

Zapf intended Optima to be a typeface that could serve for both body text and titling. To prove its versatility, Zapf set his entire bookAbout Alphabetsin the regular weight.[2]Zapf retained an interest in the design, collaborating on variants and expansions into his eighties.

History

[edit]
Zapf cited this 15th-century gravestone as inspiring Optima. Portions of the text are copied onto one of his 1950 sketches.[3]

Interested in calligraphy and the history of Italian printing and lettering, Zapf first visited Italy in 1950. While in Florence, Zapf was particularly interested in the design of the lettering in tombstones of the cemetery of theBasilica di Santa CroceinFlorence,in which the strokes subtly widen as they reach stroke terminals without ending in a serif. He quickly sketched an early draft of the design on a 1000 lira banknote.[3][4]Zapf was to work on the development of Optima during most of the following decade.[5]

In his bookAbout Alphabets,Zapf commented that his key aim in designing Optima's capitals, inspired by the Roman capital model, was the desire to avoid the monotony of all capital letters having a roughly square footprint, as he felt was true of someearlysans-serif designs. Like the Roman capitals, Optima's 'E' and 'R' occupy about a half-square, the 'M' is wide and its sides are splayed.[6]

On the suggestion ofMonroe Wheelerof theMuseum of Modern Artin New York City, Zapf decided to adapt his typeface to be used as a book type. "He thereupon changed the proportions of the lowercase, and by means of photography, he tested the suitability of the design for continuous reading application." Zapf designed the capital letters of Optima after the inscriptions on the Trajan Column (A.D. 113). Optima was the first German typeface not based on the standard baseline alignment. Zapf stated: "This base line is not ideal for a roman, as it was designed for the high x-height of the Fraktur and Textura letters. Thus, too many German types have ascenders which are too long and descenders which are too short. The proportions of Optima Roman are now in the Golden Section: lowercase x-height equalling the minor and ascenders-descenders the major. However, the curved lines of the stems of each letter result from technical considerations of type manufacturing rather than purely esthetic considerations."[7]

The development of Optima occurred during the period 1955–1958. Optima was first manufactured as a foundry version in 1958 by Stempel of Frankfurt, and by Mergenthaler in America shortly thereafter. It was released to the public at an exhibition in Düsseldorf the same year. Zapf himself wanted to name the new type faceNew Roman,but the marketing staff insisted that it be namedOptima.[7]In a memoir written for Linotype, Zapf commented:

The name "Optima" was not my idea at all. It is for me too presumptuous and was the invention of the sales people at Stempel.

Zapf wrote later in his life of his preference for Optima over all of his other typefaces, but he also mentioned “a father should not have a favorite among his daughters.”[7]

Structure

[edit]

Optima's design follows humanist lines; its capitals (like those ofPalatino,Hans Eduard Meier'sSyntaxandCarol Twombly'sTrajan) originate from the classicRoman monumental capital model,reflecting a reverence for Roman capitals as an ideal form.

Optima is an example of a modulated-stroke sans-serif, a design type where the strokes are variable in width. The design style has been intermittently favored since the late nineteenth century; Optima is one of the most lasting examples of the genre. Optima was originally targeted by Stempel's Walter Cunz as a competitor to Ludwig & Mayer's Colonia design, which has not been digitised.[8][9]Shaw also suggests the little-known 1948 design Romann Antiqua, as well as Stellar byRobert Hunter Middletonas predecessors, and notes the existence of Pascal byJosé Mendoza y Almeida(1962) as a design with a similar set of influences.[2][10][11][12][13]Optima is however quite restrained in stroke width variation; more display-oriented predecessors such asBritannicshow far more differentiation in stroke width than Optima does.

Optima's sloped version was originally anobliqueor sloped roman, in which the letters do not take on handwriting characteristics. For Optima nova (discussed below) Zapf decided to create a newtrue italicwith a greater slant angle.

During late development of Optima, Zapf also began working on a non-modulated sans for Linotype, to be named Magnus and intended to compete withGill Sans.It has never been released.

Optima Greek (1973)

[edit]

A Greek variant designed byMatthew Carter,based on sketches from Hermann Zapf.[14]No digital versions have been produced.

Optima Classified (1976)

[edit]

A variant designed byMatthew Carter,based closely on Optima Medium. No digital versions have been produced.

Optima nova (2002)

[edit]
A specimen image of Optima Nova showing its italic, stylistic alternates and condensed weights

"Optima nova" is a redesign of the original font family, designed by Hermann Zapf andLinotypeGmbH type director Akira Kobayashi.[15][16]The new family contains seven font weights, adding light, demi, and heavy font weights, but removing extra black weight. Medium weight is readjusted to between medium and bold weights in the old family scale. Glyph sets are expanded to include Adobe CE and Latin Extended characters, with light to bold weight fonts supporting proportional lining figures, old style figures, and small caps.

The initial and most common release of Optima, like many sans-serif fonts, has anobliquestyle instead of anitalic:the shapes are merely tilted to the right. In Optima nova, this is replaced by a true italic. (In interviews, Zapf has said that this was his original goal from the beginning, but the need to release Optima quickly forced him to settle for an oblique.)

Even in Roman fonts, letters such as Q, a, f are redesigned. The overall bounding boxes were widened in Optima nova.

Reviewing it, John Berry wrote that "its'color'on the page comes much closer to that of the original metal version than any of the earlier photo/digital versions did "but that" ends of the strokes in the letters 'a', 'c', and 's' flare much more dramatically than they ever did in the older Optima — so much so that these letters almost look as though they have serifs...It’s a subtle difference, but it’s disturbing if you’re used to the understated elegance of Optima’s letterforms. "[15]

Optima nova Condensed

[edit]

A condensed variant which consists of light to bold weights, but no italic fonts. The glyph set does not support proportional lining figures, old style figures, or small caps.

Optima nova Titling

[edit]

Atitling capitalsvariant, which contains only capital letters, with restyled letterform. The glyph set is the same as "Optima nova Condensed", but also includes extra ligatures. Berry writes in his review of the "nova" release: "it has softly curved joins and interior angles. Instead of the added crispness of detail that you might expect of a face designed for display use, this one looks more sculptural."[15]

In the tradition of hand lettering and lapidary inscription, the titling face shares similarities with the work of Zapf's friendHerb Lubalin,especially the exuberant ligatures (for which Lubalin's ITC Lubalin Graph and ITC Avant Garde are notable). Further influence ofA.M. CassandreandRudolf Koch,whose work greatly inspired the young Zapf, can also be seen in Optima.

Optima Pro Cyrillic (2010)

[edit]

In April 2010, Linotype announced the release of Cyrillic version of the original Optima family, in OpenType Pro font formats. Released fonts include Optima Pro Cyrillic Roman, Oblique, Bold, Bold Oblique.[17]

Derivatives

[edit]

As with many commonly used fonts, knockoff designs and re-releases under different names have been released, some created by Zapf himself. These all tend to copy the original version, rather than the Optima nova design which represents Zapf's final thoughts on the design. In theBitstreamfont collection, Zapf Humanist 601 is provided as an Optima clone. Other Optima clones include Optane from the WSI Fonts collection, Opulent by Rubicon Computer Labs Inc., Ottawa fromCorel,CG Omega and Eterna. Freely available implementations include URW Classico (available with URW Font package fromGhostscript).Linux BiolinumandLibertinus Sansare libre fonts inspired by it. Zapf'sPalatino Sansis a more informal typeface in the same style, with a design reminiscent of brushstrokes or calligraphy.

Kontour Type designed the Utile Display typeface, inspired from the Optima typeface.[18]

Notable usages

[edit]
Expo 67 Montreal

Optima is used for theVietnam Veterans Memorialin Washington and used in the official logo and most publications associated withExpo 67in Montreal.[19]

Optima was chosen as the font to be used for the names of those who lost their lives in theSeptember 11 attacks,carved into bronze parapets, at theNational September 11 Memorial & Museum,which is named "Reflecting Absence".[20]More recently, was used by U.S. politicianJohn McCain's2008 presidential campaign.[21]

Opinions on the design have been variable, partly because of its extensive use.Erik Spiekermanndescribed it as "used on parking garages & hospitals across the United States. Tired & inappropriate. I don’t blame the typeface but the designers."[22][self-published source]He also commented "Optima is patronizing. It hasn't got the guts to be either a proper Sans or Serif, so it keeps all its options open and appeals to the middle...It suits everything and pleases nobody."[23]

Jonathan Hoeflerdescribed it as "signifying a very down-market notion of luxe...the font of choice for the hygiene aisle."[24]

Usage examples

[edit]

Brands and other entities using Optima include:

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^Haley, Allen."Optima"(PDF).Monotype Imaging.Retrieved9 October2015.
  2. ^abShaw, Paul."About More Alphabets review".Blue Pencil letter design.Retrieved23 November2015.
  3. ^abStone, Sumner."Hermann Zapf".Typographics Conference. Archived fromthe originalon 28 September 2015.Retrieved22 August2015.
  4. ^Siebert, Jürgen."Fontshop – Hermann Zapf 1918–2015".Fontshop.Retrieved22 August2015.
  5. ^Nikolaus Julius Weichselbaumer (14 December 2015).Der Typograph Hermann Zapf: Eine Werkbiographie.Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. pp. 173–190.ISBN978-3-11-041505-6.
  6. ^Standard], Hermann Zapf. [Transl. by Paul (1970).About Alpha bets: some marginal notes on type design([Rev. ed.] ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.ISBN9780262240109.
  7. ^abcLawson, Alexander (1990).Anatomy of a Typeface.David R. Godine. pp. 329–330.ISBN0879233338.
  8. ^"Optima".Linotype.Retrieved22 August2015.
  9. ^"Colonia type specimen".Flickr.Ludwig & Mayer. January 2013.Retrieved22 August2015.
  10. ^"Joachim Romann"(PDF).Klingspor Museum.Retrieved23 November2015.
  11. ^Mendoza, José."Pascal ND".Neufville.Retrieved23 November2015.
  12. ^"Stellar".Fonts.Monotype.Retrieved29 August2015.
  13. ^Speice, Jim."Stellar".MyFonts.Speice Graphics.Retrieved9 September2015.
  14. ^magazine TYPO.18 December 2005 issueArchivedMarch 19, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  15. ^abcBerry, John D. (3 November 2003)."Optima nova — A New Take on Timeless Face".Creative Pro.Retrieved15 June2016.
  16. ^"Optima nova".issuu.Linotype. 17 September 2012.
  17. ^"International typography gets a Cyrillic boost".
  18. ^"Game, set, match: Utile aces all your type needs".kontour.typenetwork.Retrieved14 April2020.
  19. ^"Iconic Identities: Expo '67".Actually.15 April 2020.
  20. ^Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times (26 August 2011)."Architect's vision takes shape in Sept. 11 memorial".RetrievedAugust 26,2011.
  21. ^Tschorn, Adam (March 30, 2008)."The character issue".Los Angeles Times.
  22. ^Spiekermann, Erik [@espiekermann](September 7, 2013)."Optima used on parking garages & hospitals across the USA. Tired & inappropriate. I don't blame the typeface but the designers"(Tweet).Retrieved14 February2023– viaTwitter.
  23. ^Spiekermann, Erik (4 October 2004)."I Hate ITC Garamond [comment]".Design Observer.Retrieved14 February2023.
  24. ^Hoefler, Jonathan(22 February 2008)."…and Non-Fontogenic…".Hoefler & Frere-Jones.Retrieved14 February2023.
  25. ^Garner, Dwight (26 April 2021)."Rachel Cusk's New Novel Turns Up the Heat at a Private Artist's Retreat".The New York Times.Retrieved28 March2023.

References

[edit]
  • Margaret Re, Johanna Drucker, Matthew Carter, James Mosley.Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter.Princeton Architectural Press: 2003.ISBN1-56898-427-8,ISBN978-1-56898-427-8.
  • Blackwell, Lewis.20th Century Type.Yale University Press: 2004.ISBN0-300-10073-6.
  • Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein.Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998.ISBN1-57912-023-7.
  • Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson.The Encyclopedia of Type Faces.Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983.ISBN0-7137-1347-X.
  • Lawson, Alexander S.,Anatomy of a Typeface.Godine: 1990.ISBN978-0-87923-333-4.
  • Macmillan, Neil.An A–Z of Type Designers.Yale University Press: 2006.ISBN0-300-11151-7.
  • Zapf, Hermann.Manuale Typographicum.The MIT Press: 19534, 1970.ISBN0-262-24011-4.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related toOptima.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Optima&oldid=1249761246"