Editing Hermann Zapf (section)

== Type design ==
Zapf's career in [[type design]] spanned the three most recent stages of printing: [[Linotype machine|hot metal]] composition, [[phototypesetting]] (also called cold type), and [[computer font|digital]] typesetting. His two most famous [[typeface]]s, [[Palatino]] and [[Optima]], were designed in 1948 and 1952, respectively.<ref name=DW /> Palatino was designed in conjunction with [[August Rosenberger]], with careful attention to detail. It was named after the 16th-century Italian writing master [[Giovanni Battista Palatino|Giambattista Palatino]]. It 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. Optima, a flared sans-serif, was released by Stempel in 1958. Zapf intended the design to bridge serifs and sans serifs and to be suitable for both headings and continuous passages of text.<ref name="Fontshop - Hermann Zapf 1918-2015">{{Cite web|last1=Siebert|first1=Jürgen|title=Fontshop – Hermann Zapf 1918–2015|url=https://www.fontshop.com/content/hermann-zapf-1918-2015|publisher=Fontshop|access-date=22 August 2015}}</ref><ref name="Sumner Stone Typographics Conference">{{Cite web|last1=Stone|first1=Sumner|title=Hermann Zapf|url=http://typographics.com/projects/zapf/|publisher=Typographics Conference|access-date=22 August 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928213844/http://typographics.com/projects/zapf/|archive-date=28 September 2015}}</ref>

[[File:CA Immo logo.svg|thumb|Melior, inspired by Didone typography of around 1800, incorporating the [[superellipse]] as a design motif]]
Zapf's work reached into a range of genres. Palatino is a warm, organic design inspired by Italian Renaissance calligraphy and printing. Melior suggests the work of the great German neoclassical printer [[Justus Erich Walbaum]] but also is based on the mathematical "super-ellipse".<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Shaw|first1=Paul|title=Overlooked Typefaces|url=http://www.printmag.com/imprint/overlooked-typefaces/|website=Print magazine|date=10 February 2011|access-date=2 July 2015}}</ref> His sans serif series [[URW Grotesk]] was designed for newspaper use and presents a wide range of widths and weights, reminiscent of geometric sans serif fonts like [[Futura (typeface)|Futura]] but in a more eccentric style.<ref name="URW Grotesk">{{Cite web|title=URW Grotesk|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/urw/grotesk/|website=MyFonts|publisher=URW++|access-date=12 September 2015}}</ref> [[Dan Margulis]] commented on his death that "you would have to say that his historical standing will be based on the first ten years of his professional career."<ref name="Comments on Typophile thread">{{Cite web|last1=Zhukov |first1=Maxim |title=Comments on Typophile thread |url=http://www.typophile.com/node/16602 |website=Typophile |access-date=12 September 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150227105442/http://typophile.com/node/16602 |archive-date=27 February 2015}}</ref><ref name="Margulis">{{Cite web|last1=Margulis|first1=Dan|author-link=Dan Margulis|title=Facebook post on Hermann Zapf's death|url=https://www.facebook.com/LedetTraining/posts/10153970296654068 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/15254734067/10153970296654068 |archive-date=2022-02-26 |url-access=limited|website=Facebook|publisher=Ledet Adobe Software Training|quote=He participated in the 1980s trend toward faces with very large [[x-height]]s and tight letterfits; his major works in that genre, Zapf Book and Zapf International, have deservedly been forgotten|access-date=27 March 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Zapf's later releases for Linotype in the 1990s and 2000s, often created in collaboration with Akira Kobayashi, were radical reformations of his previous work, often removing compromises that had been necessary in the manufacture of metal type. In this period he created Palatino Sans, a more informal modulated sans serif than Optima.

Zapf's typefaces have been widely copied, sometimes against his will. The best-known example may be [[Monotype Imaging|Monotype's]] [[Palatino#Book Antiqua|Book Antiqua]], which was included in [[Microsoft Office]] and is often considered an imitation 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. At a 1994 conference of the Raster Imaging and Digital Typography association in Darmstadt, Germany, a panel discussion on digital typefaces and designers' rights strongly criticized the alleged plagiarism of Zapf's Palatino, while several Microsoft attendees listened in the audience. In 1999, Microsoft worked with Zapf and Linotype to develop a new, authorized version of Palatino for Microsoft, called Palatino Linotype.

Sometimes, however, Zapf worked with a font maker to make new versions of his existing typefaces created for another company. For example, 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.