obsession with Detail

Hoefler Text’s rich set of characters and variants (ligatures, genuine small capitals, initial and terminal swashes, the archaic long s, old-style figures, and a lovely set of text ornaments) not only manage to put the Mac through its typographical paces, it makes for an exceptionally versatile and useful font.

Ellen Lupton wittily describes Hoefler Text as “the big brother of Mrs. Eaves.” Unlike Mrs. Eaves, however, Hoefler Text is not an historical revival of a specific typeface but an elegant synthesis of the best elements of seventeenth century typography. Hoefler designed Hoefler Text to celebrate some of his favorite aspects of two splendid baroque typefaces: Jean Jannon’s Janson Text and Nicholas Kis’ Garamond #3.

Here’s how a fellow Hoefler Text fan describes it:

It is, indeed, old-fashioned and formal. It is also strong and a touch youthful or eccentric (take your pick), the typographical equivalent of a well-tailored, dark, pin-striped business suit with a scarlet bow tie. It has enough formality, enough finesse, and enough panache to be suitable for almost anything, and its proportions permit it to be legible no matter how it is used.

For sometime now, I’ve used Hoefler Text as my default font. It’s compact without being cramped, formal without being stuffy, and distinctive without being obtrusive. Jeff Croft sums it up perfectly: “You may never need another body type.”

It makes great logos too, for Wikipedia:

and, of course, for obsession with Detail:

In 1950, while visiting the Santa Croce church in Florence, Zapf sketched some letters from grave plates cut in 1530. Having no other paper with him, he did the sketches on two 1000 lire bank notes.

By 1952, after careful legibility testing, the first drawings were finished, and in 1958, after further refinements, Optima was finally produced in matrices for the Linotype typesetting machines. The type was cut by the famous punchcutter August Rosenberger at the D. Stempel AG typefoundry in Frankfurt.

Zapf felt Optima was compromised aesthetically to accommodate the requirements of lead casting. So in 2002, he collaborated with Akira Kobayashi to redesign and improve Optima digitally into Optima nova. Whereas Optima’s Italic is a mere oblique, Optima nova exhibits a true Italic weight. The new version also includes a Condensed and a Titling weight with extraordinary capital ligatures.

Optima has inspired a number of imitators and clones, including: Zapf Humanist, Optane, Opulent, CG Omega, and Eterna.

Optima is the typeface used on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

What makes Optima exceptional is the way it combines modernist and classical sensibilities. Optima looks modern, yet it exhibits classically roman proportions and character. Though it lacks serifs, its tapering stems seem to imply them. It feels more humane than most san-serifs.