Palatine (font)

Palatino is a typeface created by designer Hermann Zapf in 1948. It is a typeface admired by many due to its grace and strength. This font has been adapted to all printing technologies of the 20th century and is probably one of the most used and copied fonts.

Named in honor of the master writer of the XVI century Giambattista Palatino. The Palatino family is based on humanist types of the Italian Renaissance, ^{[citation required]} which imitate the letters formed by a quill and an inkwell; This gives a certain grace to the calligraphy. However, the Renaissance tends to use small letters with long, thin vertical lines (both ascending and descending); In contrast, the Palatino has larger proportions, which is why it is considered much easier to read. See typography for more information on classifications.

The Linotype and Adobe Systems corporations sell authentic versions of the Palatino; Linotype typeface is authorized by Zapf as the authentic Palatino. However, some versions of the Palatine press or those with a smaller width are considered more legible and more elegant for certain people. In the Bitstream type collection, Palatino is called Zapf calligraphy.

Microsoft distributes a similar typeface, the so-called Book Antiqua (originally owned by Monotype), which is considered by many to be an imitation. Like Arial, which is similar to Helvetica, Book Antiqua was designed as an alternative to registering type required by the Adobe PostScript Standard.

Both Book Antiqua and Arial share the same parameters as the original digital fonts, such as character width, spacing, and kerning properties. However, the Book Antiqua type imitates Palatino more than Arial does with Helvetica, although in fact the two typefaces are very difficult to differentiate from their predecessors. The main difference between the versions is that the width of the C and S are different, so it may not seem correct to some people.

As curious data we can say that:

• As the decades passed, due to the much use of Palatino's typography in women's books, it has acquired the reputation of being in some way "femined".^{[chuckles]required]}
• It is the type of lyrics used by writer Brian Jacques in his series books RedwallLike in many other textbooks.

In 1993, Zapf withdrew from the International Typographic Association (ATypl) due to the hypocritical attitude of important members of the ATypl who used unauthorized copies of this typeface.

Although Book Antiqua is not a direct copy of Palatino, Microsoft has patented and distributed a version of Zapf's original design called Palatino Linotype on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.^{[citation needed]}