Hermann Zapf, inventor of the Palatino font, dead at 87

dot-font: Hermann Zapf at 87
John D. Berry recently attended Linotype's celebration of Hermann Zapf's 87th birthday and the release of his new Palatino Nova type family. With this vivid first-hand account and lots of type links to follow, you'll feel like you were there, too!
By John D. Berry, creativepro.com contributing editor
Monday, December 12, 2005



Hermann Zapf designed his most famous typeface, Palatino, more than half a century ago. The drawings were completed in 1948, and by 1950 it was in use both as hand-set type and as a hot-metal typeface set on Linotype machines. In the early 1950s Zapf extended the Palatino family to include Aldus, a version designed specifically for text setting, and a pair of display variants (Michelangelo and Sistina), as well as narrow and swash italics.
Although he designed it originally for hand-setting and for Linotype composition, Palatino has proven to be a very durable typeface. In various versions, it has been in constant use since 1950, and as a digital font it appears all over the world on laser printers and in a wide range of software packages. Zapf himself has always believed in designing new type for new eras, and he has been at the forefront of efforts to design type that can meet the challenges of new technologies. So only those who don't know him would find it surprising that last month, when Linotype hosted a celebration in Kronberg, Germany, in honor of Hermann Zapf's 87th birthday, it was also the official launch of Zapf's new digital reworking and expansion of Palatino: Palatino Nova.

At the birthday banquet, held in the sumptuous Schlosshotel Kronberg, a converted 19th-century German chateau, Linotype managing director Bruno Steinert recalled Hermann Zapf's relentless work ethic. Far from giving 100% to any effort, Steinert said with an admiring laugh, Hermann would give "150% or even 200%." (I was watching the face of Hermann's wife, the calligrapher and type designer Gudrun Zapf von Hesse, at that moment; she laughed heartily in acknowledgment of the truth of this exaggeration.) When Hermann would come in to the Linotype offices, said Steinert, he would disappear into the office of type director Akira Kobayashi at 9 a.m. and not emerge until they came out for a twenty-minute lunch break in the middle of the day; then they'd both disappear again and not be seen until five o'clock. This fruitful collaboration had already produced a new version of Optima (Optima Nova, 2003), and they're now working on the soon-to-be-released Palatino Sans -- a departure for Zapf's designs.

Among the guests were renowned typographers, type designers, and calligraphers, several of whom rose and spoke in German or English. Hermann was surprised by the number of Americans in the group and decided that he should deliver his own remarks in English, although he had prepared them in German; his fluent English made this impromptu translation go smoothly. (Zapf has said that one of the strategic choices that had benefited his career was learning English, so that he could communicate directly in the United States as well as in German-speaking countries.)

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