What is "palatino"

Palatino is the name of an old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, initially released in 1948 by the Linotype foundry.

Named after 16th century Italian master of calligraphy Giambattista Palatino, Palatino is based on the humanist types of the Italian Renaissance, which mirror the letters formed by a broad nib pen; this gives a calligraphic grace. Its capital 'Y' is in the unusual 'palm Y' style, inspired by the Greek letter upsilon. But where Renaissance faces tend to have delicate proportions such as a low x-height (short lower-case letters and longer ascenders and descenders), Palatino has larger proportions, increasing legibility. It is one of several related typefaces by Zapf, each showing influence of Italian Renaissance letter forms, although Zapf was unable to visit Italy until after he had finished the Palatino roman. The group includes Palatino, Sistina, Michaelangelo Titling, and Aldus, which take (loose) inspiration from printing types cut by Francesco Griffo c. 1495 in the print shop of Aldus Manutius. Paul Shaw has described Michaelangelo, Sistina, Aldus and Kompakt, an ultra-bold display design from 1952, as "Palatino's extended family".

Palatino was particularly intended as a design for trade or 'jobbing' use, such as headings, advertisements and display printing, and was created with a solid, wide structure and wide apertures that could appear clearly on poor-quality paper, when read at a distance or printed at small sizes. However, it became popular for book body text use, overshadowing the narrower and lighter Aldus, which Zapf had designed for this role. It has been cited as one of the ten most used serif typefaces. Since Palatino was not originally designed for body text, some of its characters were intended to stand out with quirky, calligraphic design features, and Zapf later redesigned them with more sober alternates, which have become the norm on most digital versions. Zapf retained an interest in the design, and continued to collaborate on new versions into his eighties.

Linotype licensed Palatino to Adobe and Apple who incorporated it into the PostScript digital printing technology as a standard font. This guaranteed its importance in digital and desktop publishing and made it (or a variant of it) a preinstalled font on most computers. As with many popular fonts, knockoff designs and rereleases under different names are common.

Palatino is the Italian-language version of Palatine; see Palatine (disambiguation).

Palatino may also refer to:

• Palatino, a family of typefaces
• Palatino Express, an passenger train, formerly called the Rome Express, operating from 1890
• Palatine Hill, also called Palatino, the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome