Hermann Zapf released the Optima Font in 1958 through D. Stempel AG foundry in Frankfurt Germany as an original humanist sans serif typeface that quickly gained widespread acclaim compared with Garamond and Centaur Font, both which it shares similarities with. This typeface became a cult hit and quickly rose above others on its market due to its striking aesthetic features and distinct design elements.
The typeface combines different weights and forms for an eye-catching texture, drawing inspiration from Roman Inscriptions while being ideal for CSS styling.
Optima Roman – [Opulent Regular]
Optima Medium – [Oregon LDO Medium]
Optima Demi Bold – [Linux Biolinum O Bold]
Optima Bold – [Vera Humana 95 Bold]
Optima Black – [OPTIOption Semi Bold]
Optima Extra Black – [Zapf Humanist 601 Std Ultra]
Optima Italic
Other Free Optima Similar Fonts
Optima Nova
With the clear, simple elegance of its sans serif forms and the warmly human touches of its tapering stems, the Optima family has proved popular around the world.
In 2002, when it was finally possible to produce digital alphabets without technical limitations and compromises, and more than fifty years after the first sketches, an expansion and redesign of the Optima family was completed and released as Optima nova.
Hermann Zapf and Japanese type designer, Akira Kobayashi, collaborated on the project, which included re-working of the existing weights and the addition of several new weights: small caps, old style figures, light, heavy, and condensed.
URW Classico
URW Classico is nn Optima-like typeface that comes with GhostPDL made by URW++. It is released under the Alladin Free Public License.
Nobilis Light
Gotham is a geometric sans-serif typeface family designed by American type designer Tobias Frere-Jones with Jesse Ragan and released from 2000. Gotham’s letterforms were inspired by examples of architectural signage of the mid-twentieth century. Gotham has a relatively broad design with a reasonably high x-height and wide apertures.
Since creation, Gotham has been highly visible due to its appearance in many notable places. This has included Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Michigan State University branding, and the 2016 federal election campaign of the Australian Labor Party.
Vanitas
Vanitas is an elegant high contrast contemporary sans. It is rooted in the style of a classic didone, excluding the typical serifs and ball terminals as well as being designed with a cleaner, more reductionist appearance. Strict attention was given to the cohesiveness and balance between letterforms as well as the careful refinement of all curves.
Stylistically, Vanitas’ alluring, sophisticated sensibility is directly inspired by high fashion. The upright styles are complimented by a pairing of optically adjusted true italics, which were purposefully adapted to retain the sharpness of their counterparts. Abandoning traditionally executed cursive italic letterforms retains Vanitas’ sharp characteristic through each style.
Zapf Humanist 601
Zapf Humanist 601 BT was designed by Hermann Zapf and published by Bitstream. Zapf Humanist 601 BT contains 8 styles and family package options.
URW Imperial Text Bol
URWImperialTExtBol is a TTF with extra bold style available for MAC & PC. Its character set contain upper & lowercase alphabets and numbers.This font family have 4 variants including URWImperialT,ExtBold, Ext Bold Oblique and Oblique.Copyright: URW Software, Copyright 1994 by URW Style: Regular Version: Version 001.005
Conclusion
So, these are some best quality free Optima alternative fonts that are very close to the original design of Optima and some fonts are free for personal and commercial use. If you think we did great Optima alternative collections then share this post with your favorite social networks, or if you think we missed any favorite alternative to Avenir, then let us know in the comment form below.
Enjoy!!
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