I have always liked Optima and have used it in the past as a text face. My 1975 copy of The New Columbia Encyclopedia is set in Optima, and it works well there. I find it elegant and very legible. However, I really missed a true italic. In Optima nova, the designers have given us a beautiful italic and the bonus of Roman and italic fonts with osf already incuded. The downside is that some of the elegance has been removed by the inclusion of the serif-like flares and the thickening of the letters. Perhaps using the light weight will satisfy my need for the original elegance of the design. In any case, the article was well-written and I enjoyed reading it.
I have to respond to this article in a positive fashion, although I have never been too enamored of Optima. It may because of the fact that it really doesn't function well as a text typeface, although I've only ever worked with the photo/digital versions. As noted in the article, the hot metal version apparently made a nice text face.
Again, another well thought out article from creativepro.com. Thanks to the editorial staff for producing such great content.
Submitted by geozinger on Mon, 11/03/2003 - 06:24.
This is great.
Although from what I know Zapf himself has been opposed to revivals, this one is paradoxical in the ways in which it deviates from the original, so maybe it's OK? In fact I suspect the overall deviation might have been an ideological precondition for Zapf, for him to authorize and work on the new version.
Certainly the deviation might discomfort fans of the original (even if they've only used the half-baked photo/digital version), and I'm personally unsure of the benefits of increasing the flares (like on the "a"), but the end-result seems really happy to me. That Italic for one is really amazing! It has a surprising originality, echoing the originality of the original (!) Roman when it was released 50 years ago.
Love the italic and osf; don't like the flares
I have always liked Optima and have used it in the past as a text face. My 1975 copy of The New Columbia Encyclopedia is set in Optima, and it works well there. I find it elegant and very legible. However, I really missed a true italic. In Optima nova, the designers have given us a beautiful italic and the bonus of Roman and italic fonts with osf already incuded. The downside is that some of the elegance has been removed by the inclusion of the serif-like flares and the thickening of the letters. Perhaps using the light weight will satisfy my need for the original elegance of the design. In any case, the article was well-written and I enjoyed reading it.
Another excellent article on the arcanum of our business
I have to respond to this article in a positive fashion, although I have never been too enamored of Optima. It may because of the fact that it really doesn't function well as a text typeface, although I've only ever worked with the photo/digital versions. As noted in the article, the hot metal version apparently made a nice text face.
Again, another well thought out article from creativepro.com. Thanks to the editorial staff for producing such great content.
Breath of fresh air
This is great.
Although from what I know Zapf himself has been opposed to revivals, this one is paradoxical in the ways in which it deviates from the original, so maybe it's OK? In fact I suspect the overall deviation might have been an ideological precondition for Zapf, for him to authorize and work on the new version.
Certainly the deviation might discomfort fans of the original (even if they've only used the half-baked photo/digital version), and I'm personally unsure of the benefits of increasing the flares (like on the "a"), but the end-result seems really happy to me. That Italic for one is really amazing! It has a surprising originality, echoing the originality of the original (!) Roman when it was released 50 years ago.
hhp
Fascinating!
Thanks for the information and for the illustrative examples. I particularly enjoyed seeing Zapf's original sketches on a the banknot!