The Optima font family is one of those incredibly striking yet simple font families that you just want to own.
In celebration of this wonderful font created in the 1950s, we thought we'd share a selection of fonts similar to Optima to show you how designers have updated its look today.
Optima Font History
Optima was created in Germany in 1958 by Hermann Zapf. Zapf's inspiration came from the design of letters carved on Renaissance-period tombstones he saw while vacationing in Florence in 1950. When Zapf returned home, he spent the better part of the decade working to create Optima.
Optima was first manufactured as a foundry version in 1958 by Stempel of Frankfurt, and by Mergenthaler in the USA soon after. It was introduced at an exhibition in Düsseldorf later that year.
Optima Typeface Characteristics
Classified as a sans-serif, Optima distinguishes itself with strokes that subtly widen as they reach stroke terminals. Zapf says that his key aim in designing Optima's capitals was the desire to avoid the monotony of all capital letters having a roughly square footprint.
Fonts Similar to Optima
Optima is a beautiful font with an elegant, understated quality that's hard to emulate. Here are a few Optima alternatives that capture the essence of the font while offering their own unique twist.
Severn Sans Serif Font Family (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Severn Sans Serif Font is a modern, minimalist font that brings a clean and stylish quality to your designs. It comes with three weights—regular, light, and bold—and offers the full collection of upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and punctuation.
Charlton Sans Serif Font Family (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
If you're a fan of Optima, then you'll love Charlton Sans Serif Font. This clean and beautiful font contains nine different weights and is an excellent choice for branding, titles, logos, headers, and more.
Maquna: Stylish Sans Serif Typeface (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
How about Maquna Sans Serif? This bold and eye-catching Optima alternative offers uppercase characters only, but it does include tons of beautiful ligatures, special alternative glyphs, ornaments, and multilingual support.
Berton Sans Serif Font Family Pack (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
How cool is Berton Sans Serif Font? This Optima alternative is offered in three different weights so that you can create the exact look you're after. Berton is an excellent display font to use in any number of projects.
Amaryllis Sans (TTF, OTF)
Use Amaryllis Sans for logo branding, editorial design, stationery design, blog design, modern advertising, and all those projects that require a font that says simple but stylish.
Logam: Luxury Sans Serif Font Family (TTF, OTF)
Looking for a font similar to Optima Bold? How about Logam? It's a terrific display font to use when you need a simple, elegant font to create text for special projects.
Yadon Sans Serif Fonts Family Pack (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Yadon Sans Serif Font is another font similar to Optima Bold that you need to consider when you are looking for a stand-out display font. Aside from uppercase characters, Optima includes a full collection of lowercase characters, numbers, and punctuation.
Breadley Sans (TTF, OTF)
Breadley Sans is an Optima alternative with a bit more of a stylistic twist than the other fonts featured here. For some, it might be too much of a twist, but for many it will be just what you were looking for.
Malak Sans Serif Font Family (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Malak is a young font making a name for itself. This beautiful sans serif font offers three weights and includes upper and lowercase characters, numbers, punctuation, and support for multiple languages.
KLARA: Elegant Sans Serif Font (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Klara is a terrific alternative to the Optima typeface that offers a similarly timeless elegance. Klara includes upper and lowercase characters, numbers, punctuation, and support for multiple languages. It works beautifully for magazine titles, advertisements, branding, quotes, web titles, and more.
Brixanos Sans Serif Modern Font (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Brixanos is another Optima alternative well suited for branding, magazine, marketing design, technology, sci-fi design, headlines, and more.
Maghony: Modern Sans Serif Font (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Maghony is another great display font to consider when you're looking for fonts similar to Optima Bold. It's a terrific choice for branding, social media posts, titles, and signage.
Avoda: Modern Sans Serif (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Avoda is an elegant and modern sans serif font that's another great Optima alternative. Though it offers more contrast in strokes than Optima, it possesses the same understated elegance of that font.
Leander (TTF, OTF)
Leander is a terrific font that can be used for just about every purpose imaginable, from branding to product design. Give it a shot when you are looking for Optima alternatives.
Ravenously Sans Serif Font (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Of all the fonts we've shared here, Ravenously is probably the most divergent from Optima in that its strokes are somewhat heavier than Optima's. However, it's still a great alternative when you are looking for a bold font that will stand out well in larger projects.
Dayleen Sans Serif Font Family (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
And finally, there is Dayleen, a wonderful, stylish choice when you are in search of fonts similar to Optima. Offered in four weights, Optima includes upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and punctuation.
How to Pair Fonts
Inspired to use one of these similar fonts to Optima? Wondering what fonts will pair well with the font of your choice? This section on how to pair fonts offers some suggestions on fonts that pair well together.
- When pairing fonts, avoid combinations that are too similar, and aim for contrast in weight, size, style, colour, etc. Think chunky and thin, decorative and simple, or heavy and light.
- Fonts have personalities. Some are playful, and others are serious, stylish, causal, outrageous, etc. Your choice of font should complement your project style and purpose. Think about the projects you'll be using your fonts like Optima for, and make sure that the font you use matches in terms of spirit and style.
- If the font of your choice offers a large font family with a range of weights, styles, etc., it's a great idea to use these fonts together because they are made to work together. Just make sure you adhere to the first suggestion and aim for contrast.
- Serif and sans serif fonts usually work well together, again just make sure you remember to keep contrasting features in mind when selecting your pairings.
Now let's take a look at some fonts like Optima and some good font pairings for them.
Best Font Pairings for Similar Fonts to Optima
If you're looking for the best font pairings for fonts like Optima, check out these fonts from Envato Elements.
Severn Sans (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Sweetheart Script (TTF, OTF)
You can't do better when it comes to fonts that pair well together than Severn Sans and Sweetheart Script. Where Severn is clean and lean, Sweetheart is flowing and dynamic. They make a great duo for your next project.
Charlton Sans (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Shirleya Script (TTF, OTF)
How about Shirley Script for Charlton Sans? The two offer a great contrast in style that works beautifully when combined. Use Shirley for your dominant text and Charlton for your secondary text or vice versa.
Logam (TTF, OTF)
Addington CF (OTF)
Serifs and sans serifs often make good font pairings, and Addington and Logam are no exception. Logam makes a terrific header font, while Addington is a wonderfully legible and elegant serif that is an excellent choice for body text.
Berton Sans (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Shows Gracious (TTF, OTF)
Here are two more fonts that pair well together: Berton Sans and Show Gracious. Both are elegant and stylish, but whereas Berton Sans is specifically designed as a display font to grab attention, Show Gracious can be used for body text that is easy to read and hold attention.
Yadon Sans (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Anything Branding (TTF, OTF)
Another serif and sans serif pairing that works well together, both Yadon Sans and Anything Branding will work well as header or body text. So depending on the look you're after, choose either one in the appropriate weight for your header text and use the other in the appropriate weight for your body text.
Maghony (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Moonshine Script (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Maghony is a terrific display font that's a terrific choice for stand-out titles, headers, etc. Moonshine Script, on the other hand, with its bouncing baseline and dynamic flow, is just what you need when you're looking for the perfect font to complement it.
Leander (TTF, OTF)
Goodies Modern (TTF, OTF)
Where Leander is straight and lean, Goodies is curved and bold. With contrasting characteristics, these two are definitely fonts that pair well together.
Ravenously Sans
(TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Wifelove (OTF, WOFF)
When you are using a font that is as attention-getting as Wifelove, you are going to need a cleaner and simpler font to achieve a good font pairing. Ravenously Sans is just that. It offers clean lines and a high level of legibility, so while Wifelove will draw attention to your project, Ravenously will hold it.
Malak Sans (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Octavia Script (OTF)
Pair Octavia Script with Malak Sans to bring a dynamism and excitement to the clean and minimalist font.
Breadley Sans (TTF, OTF)
Purity (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
Purity has the weight and style to function as eye-catching display text. It pairs well with the light or regular weights of Breadley Sans font, which you can use for your body text.
Discover More Optima Alternatives
Now that you know a bit about the Optima font history, have seen some examples of fonts similar to Optima, and understand how to achieve good font pairings, why not head on over to Envato Elements and download your favourites.
And if you want more awesome font inspiration, try some of these articles:
Fonts Similar to Times New Roman (And Its History)
16 Fonts Similar to Arial
15 Fonts Similar to Didot and Best Didot Font Pairings
Fonts Similar to Futura & What Font Pairs Well With Futura
15 Fonts Similar to Gotham
16 Fonts Similar to Georgia
Fonts Similar to Myriad Pro & Best Font Pairings
15 Fonts Similar to Garamond and What to Pair It With
