OPTI Fonts Archive

Fonts by Castcraft Software


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Cover of OptiFont CD Series Vol 1 - The Designer's Font Source
Opti Font Count
946
as of July 19, 2014
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OPTI fonts were created by Castcraft Software Inc. OptiFont is a trademark filed in 1990 by Fredric J. Kreiter of Castcraft. Castcraft started with metal types in the 1930s and might have folded with the death of Manny Kreiter, its last President and CEO, in 2005. (Direct lifts or sourced from Luc Devroye)
 
Castcraft Software released the 400-font OptiFont CD Series Vol 1 and four volumes of Opti Designer Collection with 80 fonts for each volume. Opti Designer Collection Vol 4 had an additional two supplement fonts. Castcraft also released two catalogs, The Encyclopedia of Postscript Typefaces Vol 1 and 2. A big number of fonts shown in the 2 catalogs have not been seen in the wild and it is not known if someone ever bought all of their fonts. Luc Devroye mentioned that Castcraft was selling its entire collection for US$1,000.
 
Majority of Opti fonts are copies of digital fonts from other foundries, which is referred to as clones. Castcraft also digitized non-digital fonts such as phototypes from Filmotype, Visual Graphics Corp (VGC), Alphabet Innovations and many others. Luc Devroye mentioned that Castcraft also made custom fonts. There are also Opti fonts that have been autotraced from printed specimen sheets. The original font where the Opti font was copied or based from is indicated if the source font is mentioned in Philippedada's Opti fonts list.
 
Castcraft Software mentioned in The Encyclopedia of Postscript Typefaces that it will produce the 15,000 type faces from the Type Films of Chicago. No one knows for sure how many fonts were released by Castcraft Software but Luc Devroye mentioned that there are at least 1,000 fonts. Since the fonts are no longer available for sale, they are now widely considered as abandoned or orphaned fonts. This site will put together all the Opti fonts that were shared in alt.binaries.fonts.
 
Only one font represents several fonts with variations in font name. So varying font names that refer to a single font such as OPTIFontname, FontnameOPTI, OFontname and OPFontname are only available on this site as OPTIFontname and the others are ignored. There would have been more fonts here if font name variations were not excluded. This site used Philippedada's fonts list as a guide and, for most part, followed his grouping.
 
The OPTI Fonts Archive was created in answer to the wishes of regulars at alt.binaries.fonts to give the orphaned and abandoned fonts of Castcraft Software Inc, or OptiFont, a home.
 
 
Castcraft-OPTI Resources:
Luc Devroye on Castcraft Software Inc with a background of the company and a list of 802 OPTI fonts (includes variations in font names) compiled by Luc.
Typophile - Discussion on Castcraft
Opti Designer Collection Vol 1 to 4 with each volume containing 80 fonts. Claude posted at alt.binaries.fonts scans (probably of CD inserts) with one line showing of fonts included in the 4 volumes of Opti Designer Collection with 80 fonts for each volume. Opti Designer Collection Vol. 4 have two additional supplement fonts.
The Encyclopedia of Postscript Typefaces Vol 1 and Vol 2 with one line showings. Many fonts shown in the two catalogs have not been seen in the wild. The photos of pages from the two catalogs were taken by Artur and were made available at alt.binaries.fonts.
Opti Equivalence by Philippedada that lists fonts similar to or equivalent of Opti fonts. This is based on an equivalence from an unknown source posted by Character at alt.binaries.fonts. This was updated and expanded by Philippedada to include fonts from the 4 volumes of Designer Collection, the 400-font CD Series Vol. 1 and the two Opti catalogs, in addition to those already in the original equivalence. The last update is dated May 17, 2012.
Opti Fonts List by Philippedada includes fonts that he personally knew exist or included in other Opti fonts list. Now on revision 6 dated May 17, 2012.
 
Site Update:
All fonts included in the latest update are starred
2014 July 19Added Sin family (Regular, Light, Medium, Bold.) Also made corrections on errors found by Philippedada. Opti font count is now 946.
2014 May 28Added Seneca Medium and made further corrections suggested by Philippedada. Opti font count is now 942.
2014 May 18Added Embassy, Frome, Legende Uncial and Zoom Script. Also made more corrections suggested by Philippedada. Opti font count is now 941.
2014 May 16Addressed issues/corrections raised by Philippedada.
2013 March 28Added Morgan Fifty Nine. Opti font count is now 937.
2012 December 6Added the last batch from the Philippedada pack with 14 script fonts: Aries, Billet Script, Borden Five Script, Firestorm Nine, Historic Script, Island Script, Jiffy, Levi Script, Quo (Light, Bold), and Sybaris (Regular, Bold, Regular Supplement, Bold Supplement). Opti font count is now 936.
2012 November 15Added 17 fonts from the Philippedada pack: Author Bold, Brush Script, Cloister Black, Denova, Devinne Ornamented, Fantail, Fox Script, Gaston, Glorietta, Goudy Cursive, Greig Swash (Regular, Supplement), Justice Script, Miyako Black, Park Avenue C, Rolando and Royal Inline. Opti font count is now 922.
2012 October 2Added Didot CBS Special. Opti font count is now 905.
2012 Septemebr 16Added 25 fonts posted by David Smith. The fonts were Mac Type 1 and were converted to Open Type and Windows Type 1 or True Type by Character, as follows: Century Expanded Two (Regular, Italic), Cloister (Regular, Bold), Edwalian (Light, Light Italic, Medium, Bold, Extra Bold), Goudy Italien S (Regular, Italic), Kite (Light, Bold), Mainframe (CN Trois Six R, NO Neuf Un R, RD Two Laser R, RD Two Lino R), Metropolis Bold, Paul David, PinBall, Quezon (Book Italic, Roman Book, Roman Medium) and Sanders D Five (Regular, Reverse). Opti font count is now 904.
2012 August 31The Opti Font Archive is back!
2012 June 23Added 24 fonts from the Philippedada pack: Androcles (Regular, Heavy), Bubble Double Bold, Charlie Chad Script, Cheers Five, Christie Bold, Eton (Medium, Bold, Ultra Bold), Frome, Goudy Hand Tooled Italic, Goudy Open (Regular, Italic), Goudy Text, Hawaii, Huk Light, Jacquie Special, Lago Caps, Morgan Seventy Four, Pacific, Phoenix Nine Italic, Russel Square, Solemnis Caps, Tommy. Opti font count is now 879.
2012 June 16Added 33 fonts mostly from the Philippedada pack: Aster Ad Black Extra Condensed, Aurora Grotesk No. 8 Extra Condensed, Buckley No. 8, Caliber, Cantor Roman (Bold, Outline), Clark (Light, Demi, Extra Bold, Black), Dutch Oldstyle, Forceful, Hacker 52 Ultra Bold, Jaffa Gothic Bold (Regular, Outline), Locca (Light, ExtraBold), Modular Serif Bold, Moldy DemiBold, Ocelot, Pauling (Black, Shadow), Peoria, PortsMouth, Quadruplex Extra Bold Extra Extended, Randall Gothic Bold, River, Rollie, Ronaldson Slope, Ronsard Crystal, Similunatix Heavy, Steelplate Gothic Shaded (Regular, Oblique). Opti font count is now 855.
2012 June 8Added 45 fonts mostly from the Philippedada pack: Acton Heavy, Bernhard Gothic Extra Heavy, Brasilea Medium, Brophy (Regular, Italic, Bold), Campeggio, Caslon Agency Bold Italic Swash, Caslon Graphique, Century Nova (Regular, Italic), Cerise, Contact Agency (Light, Medium), Counsil (Roman, Medium, Heavy), Futura Agency Mite (Four, Six), Garamond Light (Special, Italic), Garamond Ludlow (Roman, Italic), Gill Sans Bold Extra Condensed, Globe Gothic Bold, Handel Gothic Light, Jim Crow (Shadowed), Limited View (Regular, Expanded, Open, Expanded Open), Manchester, Matrix (Narrow, Wide), Option Medium, Panama, Pegasus (Regular, Semibold, Bold), Poor Richard, Topic (Light, Bold), Trim Roman (Roman, Italic), Unisymie Caps Bold Condensed. Opti font count is now 822.
2012 June 2Added 22 fonts from the Philippedada pack that are referenced in the Solopedia, namely: Alert (Medium, Bold), Art Gothic, Aura (Regular, Italic), Bilko (Regular, Bold). BrinX Script, Columna (Solid, Open), Faber Medium Agency, Firmin Didot, Grant Rustic, Hermosa, Homer, Howland (Regular, Open), Mahogany Script, Pinacle Extra Bold., Railroad Gothic, Roman Compressed and Royal. Opti font count is now 777.
2012 May 25Added 55 fonts from the Philippedada pack that already have preview images, namely: Alkas (Italic, A, A Italic), Artcraft Bold, Auvant Gothic (Bold and Supplement), BarMay (Book, Book Italic). Buffer (Bold, Five Bold), Burley (Bold, Solid), Chisel Expanded, Compit Outline, Corvinus (Medium, Medium Italic, Bold), Cristeta Italic (Light, Bold, ExtraBold), Einstein (Roman, Italic, Bold), Engravers (Roman No 2, Shaded), Florentine Bold, Forquet Oldstyle Figure, Franklin Gothic Medium Italic, Garamond Oldstyle Italic, Gibby (ExtraBold, Medium Condensed), Lagoon Open, Latin (Bold, Wide), London Roman, Margueritte Bold, Mill (Medium, Medium Italic), Natty Bold Outline, Neuland Light, Peach (Italique, Demi Gras, Gras, Et Demi Gras Condensed, Caps), Radiant (Medium, ExtraBold, Heavy, Medium Condensed, DemiBold Condensed), Tubby Bold, Weiss Initials One, Windsor (Elongated, Light Condensed) and Worcester Round SL Bold Outline. Opti font count is now 755.
2012 May 21Site opened with Opti fonts shared by Artur, Character, Mindofone, Philippedada, Stylus and Toto at alt.binaries.fonts. Font count is 700.
 

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