Hermann Zapf was born on November 8, 1918 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. He was married to Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. He died on June 4, 2015 in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany.
His best-known fonts include Palatino, Optima, Melior, and Zapfino. Zapf Dingbats is a collection of symbols that became popular when it was built into an Apple laser printer in the 1980s.
He was a graphic designer who created around 200 typefaces in numerous alphabets, including Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Cherokee, encompassing the eras of metal typesetting, phototypesetting, and digital typesetting.
He taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Stanford, and created typefaces for the Hallmark greeting card company.
He started out as an apprentice to a photo retoucher, and became interested in typography and calligraphy. As a teenager, he taught himself calligraphy from books.