Typecase

Commercial · Sans serif · Monotype

Optima

Licensed · paidMonotype’s page →

Optima is a licensed font from Monotype: no price is printed on the pages read for it. The 3 open-licence families below are suggested in its place, each with the basis for the substitution.

The name above is set in a fallback face. Optima is a licensed font and there is no file here to show it in; the foundry’s page has the real specimen.

Designer
Hermann Zapf
Classification
Sans serif
Price
Not read from the foundry’s page on 2026-09-04; see the page.

Hermann Zapf's serifless roman, described by Adobe Fonts as a sans with wide, full-bodied characters, a splayed M and two-storey a and g; no price was read, since the MyFonts collection page returns 404.

Free alternatives to Optima

Suggested, not measured

Typecase measures fonts from their outlines. Optima is not on this machine, so these were chosen by what is known about it — classification, lineage, common use — and each is labelled with that basis. Open one to see its measured character and neighbours.

Quiet luxury, approachable

The Alegreya Sans webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Alegreya Sans.

Alegreya SansSans serif

same classification

A humanist sans with a calligraphic feeling and varied rhythm; the nearest free relative of Optima's serifless-roman idea, though its stems do not flare.

Quiet luxury, approachable

The Marcellus webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Marcellus.

same classification

A flared serif inspired by Roman inscriptional letterforms; shares Optima's classical proportions and slight stem flare, but is a single weight.

Quiet luxury, approachable

The Tenor Sans webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Tenor Sans.

Tenor SansSans serif

same classification

A humanist sans intended for body text with classical proportions; plainer than Optima and without the tapering stems.

Own Optima? Point the app at the file and this list becomes measured: every open family ranked by how close it actually is, with the difference named. The file never leaves your machine.

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