Hermann Zapf was born in 1918 in Nürnberg. Following apprenticeship as retoucher with the printer Karl Ulrich in Nürnberg Herman Zapf moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1938 to work as type artist and calligrapher in the printing workshop of Paul Koch. After World War II Zapf headed the »Typographic Department« of the type foundry D. Stempel AG and taught at the »Master School for Design Handicraft« (later the Werkkunstschule) in Offenbach. His typefaces, which include Aldus, Optima, Palatino, Melior and Zapfino, won him numerous awards. Hermann Zapf became consultant to Linotype AG and received teaching commissions in Europe and the USA. In 1974 he was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Mainz. Between 1977 and 1987 he headed courses in calligraphy and computer-aided typography at the Institute of Technology in the US state of New York.