Optima Typeface

Optima is the name of a typeface designed by Hermann Zapf between 1952-1955.

A mid-20th century sans-serif design, Optima at first looks a little like a traditional sans-serif. However, its strokes are delicately tapered and carry residual serifs. In many ways, Optima's design follows humanist lines, but its italic variant is merely an oblique, a slanted roman.

Like Palatino, another Zapf creation, Optima is widely admired and widely imitated.

In the Bitstream font collection, Optima is called Zapf Humanist.

Optima is the typeface used on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and also in the latest design of British retailer Marks and Spencer's logo.

Sample of the Optima typeface The following paragraph is in Optima if it is installed on your machine. If not, a monospace font is used. Note that this sample may include characters which are not present in the font, in which case some user agents may substitute a different font to display these characters.