Hermann Zapf made his first scetches for Orion in 1963. Zapf's aim was to create a neutral textface which can be ideally used as a newspaper face. Its strokethickness and open letterforms also fits well for book and magazine production. The final two weights of Orion were released in 1974 for the Linofilm photocomposing machine.

URW Grotesk was designed exclusively for URW by Prof. Hermann Zapf in 1985. At the same time, Zapf designed URW Antiqua to go with URW Grotesk. At that time, we were working with a large German publishing house (Axel Springer) on type design solutions to replace certain of their newspaper fonts. Test pages of large German newspapers (e.g. Bildzeitung) were printed with URW Grotesk and URW Antiqua font families. For reasons not disclosed to us, the project was dropped and Springer never used URW Grotesk and URW Antiqua for that purpose. Anyway, Zapf finished his designs and URW produced both families. Zapf’s intention for the two typefaces was to design two highly legible, open and classical fonts that could be used for any kind of typography, especially books, newspapers, magazines, etc. However, we realized later on, that URW Grotesk is very well suited for multi media applications on screen.

URW Grotesk was designed exclusively for URW by Prof. Hermann Zapf in 1985. At the same time, Zapf designed URW Antiqua to go with URW Grotesk. At that time, we were working with a large German publishing house (Axel Springer) on type design solutions to replace certain of their newspaper fonts. Test pages of large German newspapers (e.g. Bildzeitung) were printed with URW Grotesk and URW Antiqua font families. For reasons not disclosed to us, the project was dropped and Springer never used URW Grotesk and URW Antiqua for that purpose. Anyway, Zapf finished his designs and URW produced both families. Zapf's intention for the two typefaces was to design two highly legible, open and classical fonts that could be used for any kind of typography, especially books, newspapers, magazines, etc. However, we realized later on, that URW Grotesk is very well suited for multi media applications on screen.

Michelangelo was designed by Hermann Zapf in 1950.

A personal calligraphic series commissioned by Bitstream from Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. Although Carmina BT is a neutral design, optimized for use in digital publishing, Zapf von Hesse’s unique calligraphic spirit is still quite visible in the family’s letterforms. This is not surprising, as all of Zapf von Hesse’s typefaces are calligraphic in nature. Yet Carmina BT is suitable for almost any conceivable digital text application, from book design up through signage use.

Arthura is a sans serif font family with subtle reverse contrast, particularly visible in its ultra bold ‘Black’ style. Six weights plus matching italics. Simple geometry and with humanist nuance that adds warmth. It’s a perfect choice for branding, magazines, posters, advertising, packaging, headlines, logos, web, print etc.

Palatino is the work of Hermann Zapf and became available in the late 1950s from D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt am Main. Zapf optimized Palatino’s design for legibility, producing a typeface which remained legible even on the inferior paper of the post World War II period. Zapf named the font after Giambattista Palatino, a master of scripts from the time of Leonardo da Vinci. Palatino is an Old Face font which proves that classic forms can still be used to create new typefaces.

Marconi was created by Hermann Zapf in 1973. According to Gerard Unger, it was the world's first digital typeface. Zapf’s design was developed as a text face for books and magazines. The round forms of the Marconi follow the principle of the superellipse. The lowercase letters are enlarged as the result of reading tests, while the capital letters are slightly reduced. The 8-point size — normally used for newspapers — looks more like 9 1/2 points. Marconi is a legible typeface with its large and open lowercase letters. It is ideal for long text blocks in newspaper, book, and magazine production.

Alige is a humanist sans serif typefaces made for body text and display. Carried classic roman proportion in higher letterform for better reading experence. Inspired by Optima Nova which designed by Hermann Zaph in early 50's, alige contains 28 cuts which 14 style in text and 14 in display. Kindly visit Alige Playground for more detail presentation.

Palatino Arabic is a collaboration between Lebanese designer Nadine Chahine and Prof. Hermann Zapf. The design is based on the Al-Ahram typeface designed by Zapf in 1956 but reworked and modified to fit the Palatino nova family. The design is Naskh in style but with a strong influence of the Thuluth style as well. This is evident in the swash-like finials and the wide proportions of the letterforms. It is designed for use in print in both large and small sizes. The counters are wide open to allow for better readability in small sizes as well as to maintain an open and friendly appearance. The font has 1091 glyphs and includes a large number of extra ligatures and stylistic alternates as well as the basic Latin part of Palatino nova and support for Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. It also includes proportional and tabular numerals for the supported languages. Palatino Arabic wins Type Directors Club award. Each year, the New York-based Type Directors Club judges typeface designs from all over the world in their TDC2 contest. Linotype is pleased to announce that a very new typeface of its own is among 2008’s winners: Palatino Arabic. A collaboration between Nadine Chahine and Prof. Hermann Zapf, this face is an extension of Zapf’s Al-Ahram Arabic type from 1956 recreated to join the Palatino nova family.

Diotima was designed by Gudrun Zapf von Hesse in 1948, the italic even earlier, in 1939. Diotima is a festive font particularly well-suited to invitations, programs and poems. The delicate italic draws attention to text which should be emphasized. Zapf von Hesse’s Ariadne Initials and Smaragd are perfect complements to Diotima.

Montesori is inspired by the economic forms and large x-height with a condensed style and a humanistic-grotesque typeface forms. It is a perfect option for editorial projects, branding, logos and packaging. Montesori comes in a variety of nine weights (Fine, Extra Light, Ultra Light, Light, Regular, Semi Bold, Bold, Ultra Bold and Black) with its two styles (round and italic) classified in two forms, Basic and Alternative. In addition, its case-sensitive shapes, ordinals, scientific inferiors, denominators, superscripts, subscripts, numerators, fractions... make it ideal for posters or infographics.

Colombine is based on the handwriting of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. The dynamic forms of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse's Colombine express the dance, the lightheartedness and the liveliness of Commedia dell'Arte. The type is an excellent choice for artistic as well as festive applications. The different weights make Colombine perfect for certificates and other celebratory texts.

Drawn by master German calligrapher Hermann Zapf in the 1970s, Noris Script captures the magic of the irregularities of pen strokes. The idea behind Noris Script was to bring the spontaneity of a quick handwritten script using a broad-edged pen into the modern typesetting environment. Noris is the Latin name for the German city of Nuremberg, where Hermann Zapf was born and raised. Nuremberg has something special about it, aside from Hermann Zapf, it has a great tradition of writing masters, such as Johann Neudörffer (1497-1563), Wolfgang Fugger (1515-1568), and Rudolf Koch (1876-1934).

Say hello to the new Magallanes Condensed Family, a contemporary neo-humanist sans serif font designed by Daniel Hernández. Its strokes and terminals are related to the calligraphic strokes from humanist typefaces. It comes with 8 styles, from Ultra Light to Black, each with its true italics. Every weight comes with alternative glyphs for a more dynamic use. Magallanes is the perfect titling font to complement text faces in magazines, logotypes, etc. Languages supported include Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, Pan African Latin.

Say hello to the new Magallanes Family, a contemporary neo-humanist sans serif font designed by Daniel Hernández. Its strokes and terminals are related to the calligraphic strokes from humanist typefaces. It comes with 8 styles, from Ultra Light to Black, each with its true italics. Every weight comes with alternative glyphs for a more dynamic use. Magallanes is the perfect titling font to complement text faces in magazines, logotypes, etc. Languages supported include Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, Pan African Latin.

Sandena began as an attempt at a harmonic convergence between the classic lines of Palatino and the curved flair of Optima - both favorites of mine from the great Hermann Zapf. As I’ve always loved the Swash characters of the 50’s and 60’s letterforms, I incorporated these alternatives to offer the more complete package that you see here - a humanist font in the truest calligraphic sense. This OpenType font family comes in four weights and includes condensed and Swash Cap alternates. Sandena offers multiple-character foreign language support and is being offered in a number of packages best-tailored for your unique application.

Modet is a versatile and friendly humanist sans-serif prepared for all typographic tasks. It is quite readable in smaller sizes and shows its character in larger sizes. You can change the face of Modet through its many alternate characters and OpenType features. This versatility makes it a great performer in editorial and branding projects. Modet comes in 10 roman styles, from thin to 'ultra black' and speaks 289 languages.

Virtuosa Classicis the 21st century OpenType re-release of a classic Hermann Zapf design, his very first script typeface, Virtuosa. Based on the same sketches that would inspire Zapfino 50 years later, Hermann Zapf developed Virtuosa in 1948-49. It was originally released in metal in 1952. Virtuosa nova is an English copperplate script with character. The font includes two form variants for each capital letter, and there are a number of lowercase alternates and ligatures, too.

Beatrix Antiqua is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Francesco Canovaro. Beatrix Antiqua is part of the Beatrix Family that takes its inspiration from the classic Roman monumental capital model: its capitals are directly derived from the stone carvings in Florence Santa Croce Cathedral - where the serifs are often removed while keeping the variable width strokes. So, even if it’s basically a sans-serif, Beatrix keeps a subtle swelling at the terminals suggesting a glyphic serif - in the same vein as Herman Zapf classic Optima typeface. In the lowercase design, Beatrix references early humanist typefaces, keeping small calligraphic details (as the prolongation of the e nose) that are especially visible in the italics. While Beatrix Antiqua, the companion typeface to Florentia , slightly exaggerates its antique stylistical features, Florentia tries to mix those influence with a more robust & digital age ready design, featuring bigger X-height and an extended character set that covers over forty languages using the latin alphabet, as well as Greek and Russian Cyrillic.

Opal Bulgarian is a humanistic sans serif typeface of a modern type, inspired by the famous Optima typeface (designed by Hermann Zapf). Opal Bulgarian consists of 2 weights and corresponding italics. Opal Bulgarian is suitable for body texts; for titles; for corporate identity. Opal Bulgarian continues the design of Opal BulgarianCYR, designed in 1992 by Zhivko Stankulov. In compare to Opal BulgarianCYR the new font family Opal Bulgarian has more glyphs and cover more languages. A number of shortcomings in the construction of the glyphs have been eliminated, and the design as a whole has been updated. Opal Bulgarian is available with active support and upgradeability. Licensees will receive all new versions of the font free of charge.