Hermann Zapf (November 8, 1918 – June 4, 2015) is a German typeface designer who lives in Darmstadt, Germany. He is married to calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf von Hesse.
Zapf’s work, which includes Palatino and Optima, has been widely copied, often against his will. The best known example may be Monotype’s Book Antiqua, which shipped with Microsoft Office and was widely considered a “knockoff” of Palatino. In 1993, Zapf resigned from ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) over what he viewed as its hypocritical attitude toward unauthorized copying by prominent ATypI members.
