Fonts! - Palatino

The History of Palatino:

Palatino is a serif font designed in 1948 by Hermann Zapf for the Linotype foundry. It is designed to be as an easily readable font, which mimics a broad nib pen stroke. The name Palatino comes from the Italian calligrapher Giambattista Palatino The font was intended to be similar to the hand writing styles used in Greece and Italy during the renaissance period. However, in order to make it easier to read the ascenders and descenders are shorter than they would have typically appeared during this time period. There is therefore more focus on the standard text height with large counters.

Hermann Zapf is one of the leading typeface designers and typographers. He was born in Nuremburg, Germany in 1918, and was brought up in the tough period of the German revolution following the end of World War I. He self taught himself calligraphy from books written by Edward Johnson and Rudolf Koch. He began an apprenticeship in lithography in 1934 on recommendation from his teachers due to his drawing ability. He served for a time in the German artillery during World War II, however this was short lived (his career that is) and he later returned to Juterbog to train as a calligrapher.

Zapf is famous for a number of fonts including Palatino, Ultima, Zapfino as well as others. These have subsequently resulted in many “knock-offs” and similarly designed fonts. The most common knock-off of Palatino is probably Book Antiqua, which is often in common use in with books and written material. There are also several variations on Palatino itself including Palatino Linotype and Palatino Nova. There is also a san-serif version called Palatino Sans.

The spread of the letters and wider spacing definitely makes Palatino an easier font for reading large blocks of text. By default, it does tend to spread across the page compared to other commonly used serif fonts such as Times. It therefore may be less substantial for solitary headings or quick headlines which are supposed to “grab” your attention.

NB: if this post isn't in Palatino it means you haven't got it on your computer. Go install it now, it will change your life.