What is Optima?
{{Infobox typeface | name = Optima | image = Optima font sample.svg | style = [[Sans-serif]] |classifications = [[Sans-serif#Humanist|Humanist]] | releasedate = 1958 | creator = [[Hermann Zapf]] | foundry = Stempel<br>[[Mergenthaler Linotype Company|Linotype]] | variations = Optima Nova |}} '''Optima''' is a [[sans serif]] [[typeface]]. It was designed by [[Hermann Zapf]]. Some of the lines are a little wider at the ends, which looks a little like [[serif]]s but is not. Optima was inspired by classical Roman [[letter case|capital letters]] and the stone-carving of [[Renaissance]] period [[tombstone]]s Zapf saw in [[Florence]], [[Italy]] in 1950 on a holiday.<ref>{{cite web|title=Optima Font|publisher=Monotype Imaging|url=http://cdncms.fonts.net/documents/4de43fc877b5c1ce/ILOptimaFIN.pdf|access-date=February 21, 2019}}</ref> Zapf intended Optima to be a typeface that could be used for both body text and for titles. Zapf used only this typeface in his book ''About Alphabets''.<ref>{{cite web|title=About More Alphabets|publisher=Shaw, Paul|url=http://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2012/12/blue-pencil-no-20-zapfiana-no-1-about-more-alphabets|access-date=February 21, 2019}}</ref> The first release of Optima is the one used the most. Like many sans serif fonts, it has an [[oblique type|oblique]] style instead of an [[italic]].<ref>An oblique style has the letter forms slanting, whereas a true italic is a completely different style from the normal medium typeface.</ref> In Optima nova, a later release, this is replaced by a true italic. ==References== <references/> [[Category:Fonts]] [[Category:Latin-script typefaces]] {{stub}}