Information
Rumor has it that Diotima is one of the most beautiful typefaces ever cast in metal. Decorated with the name of one of Plato’s protagonists from a dialogue about love, Gudrun created the design out of her calligraphic work for D. Stempel AG in 1948. And love is indeed a theme surrounding this typeface. In 1950 during an exhibition at the Staedel School in Frankfurt, the typeface caught the attention of one particular guest – Hermann Zapf – who was taken away by its mastery and its creator. A few years later, the couple married and continued their devotion for letters on a joint path. The most recent type family of Diotima Classic, co-created with Akira Kobayashi, includes four weights and is particularly suitable for festive and decorative designs.
Technical Information
- Designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse, Akira Kobayashi
- Styles 8
- Glyph Count 661
- Released 1954
OpenType Features
aalt c2sc dlig dnom frac kern liga locl numr onum ordn pnum sinf smcp subs sups
Supported languages
Afar, Afrikaans, Aragonese, Asu, Bemba, Bena, Bosnian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chiga, Corsican, Czech, Welsh, Danish, Taita, German, Lower Sorbian, Jola-Fonyi, Embu, English, Esperanto, Spanish, Estonian, Basque, Finnish, Filipino, Faroese, French, Friulian, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Galician, Swiss German, Gusii, Manx, Croatian, Upper Sorbian, Hungarian, Interlingua, Indonesian, Ido, Icelandic, Italian, Lojban, Machame, Jju, Kamba, Makonde, Kabuverdianu, Kikuyu, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Shambala, Colognian, Kurdish, Cornish, Latin, Luxembourgish, Ganda, Ligurian, Lithuanian, Luo, Luyia, Latvian, Meru, Morisyen, Malagasy, Makhuwa-Meetto, Maori, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian Bokmål, North Ndebele, Low German, Norwegian Nynorsk, Norwegian, South Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Nyanja, Nyankole, Occitan, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Romansh, Rundi, Romanian, Rombo, Kinyarwanda, Rwa, Samburu, Sangu, Sardinian, Northern Sami, Sena, Sango, Sidamo, Slovak, Slovenian, Southern Sami, Lule Sami, Inari Sami, Shona, Somali, Albanian, Swati, Saho, Southern Sotho, Sundanese, Swedish, Swahili, Silesian, Teso, Turkmen, Tswana, Turkish, Taroko, Tsonga, Volapük, Vunjo, Walloon, Walser, Warlpiri, Wolof, Xhosa, Soga, Zulu
Buying Guide
We offer the possibility of buying individual styles as well as complete families, with a link to the official Monotype Website.
Overview
Diotima
36 px
Diotima Light
Diotima Light Italic
Diotima Regular
Diotima Regular Italic
Diotima Bold
Diotima Bold Italic
Diotima Heavy
Diotima Heavy Italic
Diotima Light
80 px
Dialogue
about love
Columns
Diotima Light
Diotima Classic is a total upheaval for the 21st century of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse’s mid-20th-century Diotima, one of the most beautiful types ever cast in metal. Its roots lay in a calligraphic sheet written by Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. The text was the Hyperion to Diotima“ by Friedrich Hölderlin; Diotima is the name of a Greek priestess in Plato’s dialogue about love. In the philosopher’s imagination, she should appear slim and beautiful.
In 1948, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse finished the typeface’s Roman. The Diotima family was released as a metal typeface for hand setting by D. Stempel AG in 1951-53. This original Diotima is a festive design particularly suited to invitations, programs, and poems. The delicate Italic drew attention to text passages that should be emphasized.
Diotima Light
40 px
Diotima Classic is a total upheaval for the 21st century of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse’s mid-20th-century Diotima, one of the most beautiful types ever cast in metal. Its roots lay in a calligraphic sheet written by Gudrun Zapf von Hesse. The text was the Hyperion to Diotima“ by Friedrich Hölderlin; Diotima is the name of a Greek priestess in Plato’s dialogue about love. In the philosopher’s imagination, she should appear slim and beautiful.