Diotima is a
serif typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands ...
designed by
Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse
Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse (2 January 1918 – 13 December 2019) was a German book-binder, calligrapher and typographer.
She also designed several typefaces. She was the 1991 winner of the Frederic W. Goudy Award. To mark her hundredth birthday in ...
and published by
Stempel Stempel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Gary Stempel (born 1957), English-Panamanian football manager
* Herbert Stempel (1926-2020), television game show contestant who exposed the rigging of results in the 1950s quiz show ...
.
Diotima has a relatively slender and wide design, light in
colour
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
and suitable for purposes such as decorative printing and headings rather than for body text.
Aspects of the roman recall
Roman square capitals
Roman square capitals, also called ''capitalis monumentalis'', inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and ''capitalis quadrata'', are an ancient Roman form of writing, and the basis for modern capital letters. Square capitals are characterized ...
such as those on the
Column of Trajan
Trajan's Column ( it, Colonna Traiana, la, Columna Traiani) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apo ...
, such as the 'M' with no upper serifs (it has serifs in italic). The
italic lower-case is relatively calligraphic in design with a 'single-story' 'g'. The design is named for the philosopher
Diotima of Mantinea
Diotima of Mantinea (; el, Διοτίμα; la, Diotīma) is the name or pseudonym of an ancient Greek character in Plato's dialogue ''Symposium'', possibly an actual historical figure, indicated as having lived circa 440 B.C. Her ideas and do ...
, perhaps appropriately highlighting its status as one of the few typefaces designed by a woman up to this point.
Diotima was released in the
roman or regular style around 1951 and the
italic around 1953, although Zapf-von Hesse had been working on the design for some years by this point.
The design was her first full typeface.
Her husband,
Hermann Zapf
Hermann Zapf (; 8 November 1918 – 4 June 2015) was a German type designer and calligrapher who lived in Darmstadt, Germany. He was married to the calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. Typefaces he designed include ...
, used it for typesetting their wedding announcement.
As was common for work by Stempel at this time, the original release was crafted by the
punchcutter
Punchcutting is a craft used in traditional typography to cut letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Steel punches in the shape of the letter would be used to stamp matrices into copper, which were locked into a mould s ...
August Rosenberger. Stempel later released ''Ariadne-Initialen'' (Ariadne Initials), a set of
swash capitals
A swash is a typographical flourish, such as an exaggerated serif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc., on a glyph.
The use of swash characters dates back to at least the 16th century, as they can be seen in Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi's '' ...
to complement it. The design was later reissued by
Linotype.
In 2001,
San Francisco Public Library
The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as '' Library Journals ...
held an exhibition on Hermann and Gudrun Zapf's work, showcasing early specimens of Diotima.
Digitisations
Diotima was digitised early on in the period of digital fonts, with releases by Linotype (which had inherited the rights from Stempel) and
Adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...
.
In 2008-9, Zapf-von Hesse and Akira Kobayashi of Linotype released Diotima Classic, a new interpretation. It is in light, regular, bold and heavy weights and italics.
Linotype described the 'regular' weight as corresponding to the metal type after ink spread, and the light as analogous to the previous digital version (that shown right).
The bold and heavy weights were new additions. The width was somewhat reduced in roman and widened in italic.
References
{{notelist, 30em
External links
In Memoriam: Hermann Zapf(talk by Sumner Stone on Hermann Zapf, including early specimens of Diotima)
Gudrun Zapf-Von Hesse(
Klingspor Museum
The Klingspor-Museum is a museum in Offenbach, Germany, specializing in the art of modern book production, typography and type. It includes a collection of fine art books from Karl Klingspor, one of the owners of Klingspor Type Foundry in Of ...
specimen of Zapf-Von Hesse's typefaces)
Stempel typefaces
Linotype typefaces
Letterpress typefaces