
In 1977 he was made Professor of Typographic Computer Programming at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and his fonts Palatino, Optima, Zapf Chancery, and Zapf Dingbats are now familiar designs found on all personal computers. After the war Zapf worked at the Stempel AG typefoundry as artistic director. However, his work was interrupted by the second world war and he worked as a cartographer in the German military. During this period he gained experience of working with handpress type and producing lettering for musical notation. After this apprenticeship he worked with Paul Koch in Frankfurt. He joined the Karl Ulrich and Company printing firm, as an apprentice, in 1934. Zapf lost two of his siblings to the epidemic. In addition to the political unrest, there was an epidemic of Spanish flu which is estimated to have killed some 20 million people. On the same day a worker's and soldiers' council took political control of the city, Munich and Berlin were in revolution, and the following day Kaiser Wilhelm fled to Holland. That was the beginning of a brief, but close, friendship between the two men.Hermann Zapf was born into a turbulent time in 1918 in Nuremberg, Germany. When he learned of Job’s decision – and it ultimately was his decision which typefaces went into the LaserWriter – Burns reached out to Jobs in a letter. We had been marketing a suite of our typefaces to printer and computer manufactures for a couple of years prior, but without much success. ITC had learned that Adobe was pitching several typefaces to Apple that would be part of the LaserWriter’s printer font offerings. So how did ITC Zapf Chancery find its way to Apple? According to Allan Haley, who was Director of Marketing for ITC at that time, “Aaron Burns contacted Steve Jobs. What most don’t know is that ITC Zapf Chancery was designed as a family of six weights, yet only one weight – the medium italic with swash – was licensed by Apple. It then achieved great popularity and went on to become one of the most commonly used – and misused – typefaces in the world.
#Zapf chancery bold windows
It was eventually included in the Windows OS as well.
#Zapf chancery bold mac
ITC Zapf Chancery was licensed by Steve Jobs to ship with Apple computers running the Mac OS, and shortly thereafter was included as one of the core PostScript Laserwriter fonts in 1986. Why? Because it has been available on just about every computer since the mid 80s. Most people – designers and non-designers alike – have either seen or used ITC Zapf Chancery. The two that hold a major place in the history of digital typography are ITC Zapf Chancery and ITC Zapf Dingbats. The designs he did for ITC consisted of the ITC Zapf Book, ITC Zapf International, ITC Zapf Chancery, and ITC Zapf Dingbats, all released between 19. After taking a decade-long break in the mid-1960s from designing commercial typefaces due to the proliferation of the “cloning” or “plagiarizing” of his designs, Zapf re-emerged in 1971 to work with Aaron Burns and the newly founded International Typeface Corporation. Aaron Burns, the president of ITC (and my boss) who in his own right was a notable and influential typographic visionary, was his dear friend, colleague, and partner in “typographic” crime. Hermann Zapf was a frequent visitor at ITC. Hermann Zapf and International Typeface Corporation (ITC)Īaron Burns and Hermann Zapf shortly after ITC was formed in 1970. I am referring to ITC Zapf Chancery and ITC Zapf Dingbats. So rather than repeat what has been beautifully and lovingly said, I will tell you about two of his creations that I had the privilege of witnessing become part of type and design history in my days working at International Typeface Corporation (ITC).
#Zapf chancery bold professional
Zapf, both professional and personal, some of which are listed at the end of this article. There have been many wonderful tributes to Mr. Zapf’s creations have been seen and put to use by both designers and non-designers alike, and are still being used every day by those who don’t even know his name or his legacy. But his life’s work includes other influential designs as well.

Born in 1918 in Nuremberg, Germany, Hermann Zapf is most known for Palatino and Optima, as well as the calligraphic Zapfino. I’m speaking of Hermann Zapf, the highly regarded type designer, calligrapher, educator and lecturer responsible for some of the 20th century’s most important typefaces. On June 4 th 2015 we lost one of the great ones.
