Today’s digital font technology has allowed renowned type designer Hermann Zapf to realise a dream he first had more than fifty years ago: to create a fully calligraphic typeface. Zapf began work on Zapfino in 1993, in technical collaboration with David Siegel and Gino Lee, who were responsible for the initial digitization. The initial PostScript and TrueType versions were completed and released by Linotype as a set of six fonts. The current Zapfino ‘megafont’ for Apple Advanced Typography (AAT) and Open Type was built for Linotype Library by Tiro Typeworks. The new version includes additional diacritic characters for the Latin script languages of Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, and Turkey.

Zapfino consists of four basic alphabets, with many additional stylistic alternates, which can be freely mixed together to emulate the variations in handwritten text. Because of the complexity of the design of Zapfino some tips on its use might be helpful:

1) When it is necessary to set words in all uppercase letters, such as abbreviations in text, use only the basic Zapfino capitals with plenty of letter spacing.

2) The more extravagant swash variants, especially those with long flowing ascenders and descenders, should be used sparingly. They should accentuate and ornament the text, not overpower it.

3) Although every care has been taken to carefully space and kern the Zapfino characters, and most variants can be freely mixed, some combinations of letters inevitably look better than others. Take the time to choose variants that will create pleasing word shapes and, in particular, beware of colliding descenders.

4) Line spacing, or leading, should be generous, to allow room for the many long ascenders and descenders. The longest of these might be best reserved for the first and last line of text, respectively, where they can flow freely into the upper and lower margin.