12/19/2023 0 Comments Optima font history![]() ![]() Helvetica was also designed in the 1950s, but some of the designers interviewed in the film seem almost surprised by the fact that it was made by human hands and not generated parthenogenetically by the simple lines and curves that shape its letter forms. The other two were Times Roman, based on the type designed by Victor Lardent for the Times of London in the 1930s, and Courier, based on the type designed by Howard Kettler for IBM typewriters in the 1950s. A utopian graphic designer who seems to prefer Helvetica to human beings is its comic butt.Īnyone who used a computer in the late twentieth-century remembers Helvetica as one of the three typefaces available in almost any word-processing program and on almost any printer. The film’s comic hero is an anti-utopian rebel who despises Helvetica for its corporate anonymity. Its unspoken and apparently unintended theme is the folly of utopianism, the ancient fantasy that disorder can be tamed, that the disruptive elements of life can be suppressed, and that people can be shaped and trained into behaving as the authorities think they should. But Helvetica proves unexpectedly to be a sharp comic essay about human folly. When the designers aren’t talking, the film shows pretty images of Helvetica on walls and posters and anomie-inducing music floats by on the soundtrack. Much of it presents graphic designers talking sensibly or fatuously about Helvetica, either for or against it, while the filmmakers remain too cool or dim to have views of their own. Now that I’ve seen the film, I’m glad I did, even though, at eighty minutes, it’s twice as long as it needs to be. ![]() When the documentary film Helvetica appeared a few years ago, I didn’t rush to see it, because, as someone says in the film, Helvetica is “the most neutral typeface,” the one with the least appeal to those whose feelings about type are tangled up with their feelings about people. Each group favors different styles of type. For others, type should be an impersonal machine for transmitting data. This font is used only for demos (Demo license).For me, as for many other people who care about type, a typeface should be personal and expressive, like a human face. It mixes well with virtually any serif design and a surprisingly large number of sans serif faces. Optima is also about as gregarious as a typeface can be. It’s not that readability is affected that much when Optima is set on the snug side it’s just that the unhurried elegance and light gray typographic color created by the face are disrupted when letters are set too tight. If there are any guidelines, Optima should be set more open than tight. It can be set quite tight, or even slightly open – especially the capitals. Optima also benefits from a wide range of letter spacing capability. In fact, there are few limits to the amount of white space that can be added between lines of text. Optima can be set within a wide choice of line spacing values – from very tight to very open. The lowercase a and g in Optima are high-legibility two-storied designs. The M is splayed, and the N, like a serif design, has light vertical strokes. Consistent with other Zapf designs, the cap S in Optima appears slightly top-heavy with a slight tilt to the right. Only the E, F and L deviate with narrow forms. True to its Roman heritage, Optima has wide, full-bodied characters – especially in the capitals. Although Optima is almost always grouped with sans serif typefaces, it should be considered a serifless roman. Simultaneously standing out and fitting in, there are few projects or imaging environments outside of its range. Many typefaces are distinctive or attractive at the expense of legibility and versatility. When you’re ready to find its perfect pairing, browse these fantastic matches: Monotype Century Old Style™, Dante®, Frutiger® Serif, Joanna® Nova, Malabar™ and Soho®. ![]() In addition, the family is available as a suite of OpenType® Pro fonts, providing for the automatic insertion of small caps, ligatures and alternate characters, in addition to offering an extended character set supporting most Central European and many Eastern European languages. The Optima family is available in six weights, from roman to extra black, each with an italic counterpart. ![]()
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