"THE PASSION FOR HIM WAS TO CREATE BEAUTIFUL LETTERS": Hermann Zapf, who designed the Palatino, Optima, and Zapf Dingbats fonts (among many others), has died at the age of 96:
“Last Thursday, all the rest of us moved up one,” said Matthew Carter, whose designs for web fonts, including Verdana and Georgia, earned a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called genius award, in 2010. “That’s my way of saying Hermann was on top.”
Mr. Kelly said: “What Michelangelo was to sculpture and Beethoven was to music, that’s what Hermann Zapf is to type design and calligraphy. We’re all followers of his now.”
I mean, hell. The dude designed Optima, for crying out loud. But he's also very important for computer typography as well, with Palatino being one of the most widely-available desktop PC fonts from the beginning and Zapf working with Microsoft on various version.
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