Fonts ⮞ Classics ⮞

Optima

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Optima-like semi-serif font families which are both free and flexible include:

Website Developer Notes

A font marked with a checkmark (‘ ✓’) is recommended.

Only use so-called ‘free’ fonts if the fonts are free for commercial use.

Note that downloadable web fonts can’t be created from all fonts.

Only use a great classic font which is clear and legible in display media. Note: be especially careful of serif fonts, which are often less legible than sans-serif fonts in body text.

You may not charge for a free font, and you may not sell it, but you may bun­dle it with a website you deliver.

Fantasy text here says that the sample‘s font isn‘t installed.

This tries to list fonts with weights 400, 600, 700, and either 800 or 900. Fonts lacking these weights are inflexible for body text; fonts lacking bold and a heavier weight can be especially inflexible for header text unless the regular font itself is heavy. Exception: intricate heavy fonts are adequate with only 1 weight.

See Also: unfree and/or less flexible fonts are CG Omega, Eterna, Optane, Optima Nova, Opulent, Ottawa, URW Classico, & Zapf Humanist.

Note: for-pay fonts often offer more glyphs.

Recommended

I recommend Oregon LDO since it’s flexible: it comes in 3 widths; the normal width has 8 great weights; the condensed and expanded widths each have 3 adequate weights; and all fonts come in both normal and oblique styles.

Comparisons

The fonts compared, at sizes φ2, φ, and 1 em:

Dukas CF

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs

The Quick Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Brown Dog

Quick Pangrams Vex Fjord Gals with Booze

Optima LT Std

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs

The Quick Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Brown Dog

Quick Pangrams Vex Fjord Gals with Booze

Oregon LDO ✓

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs

The Quick Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Brown Dog

Quick Pangrams Vex Fjord Gals with Booze

Vera Humana 95

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs

The Quick Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Brown Dog

Quick Pangrams Vex Fjord Gals with Booze

Dukas CF 

This font family comes in 3 dark weights: Regular, Semibold, & Bold.

This can be hard to read at the user’s preferred font size, so it is advisable to enlarge the font size.

Dukas CF
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Select this font with this CSS: font-family:"Dukas CF", sans-serif;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Optima LT Std 

This font family comes in 6 weights: Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Black, & ExtraBlack.

This comes in normal and italic styles.

Optima LT Std
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Normal Styles

Select these fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Optima LT Std", sans-serif;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Italic Styles

Select these fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Optima LT Std", sans-serif; font-style:italic;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Oregon LDO  ✓

This font family comes in 3 widths: normal, condensed, and extended.

This has poor kerning, making text less readable. To compensate, use CSS letter-spacing to increase the distance between letters.

Oregon LDO
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Oregon LDO 

This comes in 8 weights: Light, Regular, Medium, DemiBold, Bold, ExtraBold, ExtraBlack, & UltraBlack, and comes in 2 styles, normal and oblique.

Normal Styles

Select the normal fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Oregon LDO", sans-serif;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Oblique Styles

Select the oblique fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Oregon LDO", sans-serif; font-style:oblique;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Oregon LDO
Condensed
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Oregon LDO Condensed 

This comes in only 3 weights: Regular, Bold, & Black, and in 2 styles, normal and oblique.

Normal Style

Select the normal condensed fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Oregon LDO Condensed", "Oregon LDO", sans-serif; font-stretch:condensed;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Oblique Style

Select the oblique condensed fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Oregon LDO Condensed", "Oregon LDO", sans-serif; font-stretch:condensed; font-style:oblique;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Oregon LDO
Extended
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Oregon LDO Extended 

This comes in only 3 weights: Regular, Bold, & Black, and in 2 styles, normal and oblique.

Normal Style

Select the normal expanded fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Oregon LDO Extended", "Oregon LDO", sans-serif; font-stretch:expanded;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Oblique Style

Select the oblique expanded fonts with this CSS: font-family:"Oregon LDO Extended", "Oregon LDO", sans-serif; font-stretch:expanded; font-style:oblique;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

Vera Humana 95 

This font family comes in 2 weights: Regular and Bold.

Vera Humana 95
View Font Sample
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Select this font with this CSS: font-family:"Vera Humana 95", sans-serif;

1.00emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.38emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

1.90emABCDEFGHIJKLM​NOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdef​ghijklm​nopqrst​uvwxyz 01234​56789 !@$%^&​()[]{}<>?

2.62emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

3.61emAaBbEeGg​MmPpQqRr​TtWwYyZz

 

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