Editing Optima (section)

== History ==
[[File:S. croce, tomba sul pavimento 14 berti.JPG|thumb|Zapf cited this 15th-century gravestone as inspiring Optima. Portions of the text are copied onto one of his 1950 sketches.<ref name="Sumner Stone Typographics Conference" />]]
Interested in calligraphy and the history of Italian printing and lettering, Zapf first visited Italy in 1950. While in Florence, Zapf was particularly interested in the design of the lettering in tombstones of the cemetery of the [[Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence|Basilica di Santa Croce]] in [[Florence]], in which the strokes subtly widen as they reach stroke terminals without ending in a serif. He quickly sketched an early draft of the design on a 1000 lira banknote.<ref name="Sumner Stone Typographics Conference">{{cite web |last1=Stone |first1=Sumner |title=Hermann Zapf |url=http://typographics.com/projects/zapf/ |publisher=Typographics Conference |access-date=22 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928213844/http://typographics.com/projects/zapf/ |archive-date=28 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="Fontshop - Hermann Zapf 1918-2015">{{cite web |last1=Siebert |first1=Jürgen |title=Fontshop – Hermann Zapf 1918–2015 |url=https://www.fontshop.com/content/hermann-zapf-1918-2015 |publisher=Fontshop |access-date=22 August 2015}}</ref> Zapf was to work on the development of Optima during most of the following decade.<ref name="Weichselbaumer2015">{{cite book |author=Nikolaus Julius Weichselbaumer |title=Der Typograph Hermann Zapf: Eine Werkbiographie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9VaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT173 |date=14 December 2015 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-041505-6 |pages=173–190}}</ref>

In his book ''About Alphabets'', Zapf commented that his key aim in designing Optima's capitals, inspired by the Roman capital model, was the desire to avoid the monotony of all capital letters having a roughly square footprint, as he felt was true of some [[Sans-serif#Grotesque|early]] sans-serif designs. Like the Roman capitals, Optima's 'E' and 'R' occupy about a half-square, the 'M' is wide and its sides are splayed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Standard] |first1=Hermann Zapf. [Transl. by Paul |title=About alphabets : some marginal notes on type design. |date=1970 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=9780262240109 |edition=[Rev. ed.]}}</ref>

On the suggestion of [[Monroe Wheeler]] of the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York City, Zapf decided to adapt his typeface to be used as a book type. "He thereupon changed the proportions of the lowercase, and by means of photography, he tested the suitability of the design for continuous reading application." Zapf designed the capital letters of Optima after the inscriptions on the Trajan Column (A.D. 113). Optima was the first German typeface not based on the standard baseline alignment. Zapf stated: "This base line is not ideal for a roman, as it was designed for the high x-height of the Fraktur and Textura letters. Thus, too many German types have ascenders which are too long and descenders which are too short. The proportions of Optima Roman are now in the Golden Section: lowercase x-height equalling the minor and ascenders-descenders the major. However, the curved lines of the stems of each letter result from technical considerations of type manufacturing rather than purely esthetic considerations."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title = Anatomy of a Typeface |last = Lawson |first = Alexander |publisher = David R. Godine |year = 1990 |isbn = 0879233338 |pages = 329–330}}</ref>

The development of Optima occurred during the period 1955–1958. Optima was first manufactured as a foundry version in 1958 by Stempel of Frankfurt, and by Mergenthaler in America shortly thereafter. It was released to the public at an exhibition in Düsseldorf the same year. Zapf himself wanted to name the new type face ''New Roman'', but the marketing staff insisted that it be named ''Optima''.<ref name=":0" /> In a memoir written for Linotype, Zapf commented: {{blockquote|The name "Optima" was not my idea at all. It is for me too presumptuous and was the invention of the sales people at Stempel.}}

Zapf wrote later in his life of his preference for Optima over all of his other typefaces, but he also mentioned “a father should not have a favorite among his daughters.”<ref name=":0" />