Drew Ink The year

Optical size

Also called opsz, Optical scaling

Drawing a face differently at different sizes rather than scaling one drawing, because a letter that works at 8pt is too fragile at 72 and one that works at 72 is too tight at 8.

Optical size: a letter in the house face with the optical size marked in vermilion.
Optical size, drawn, Drew Ink. Drawn 2026-09-29.
Optical size: Typo Script from 14 to 48 point on an Adcraft sheet, each size cut as its own set of punches, the small sizes sturdier and wider than the large.
Typo Script at six sizes, each cut for its size, American Type Founders, Typo Script; the sheet by Adcraft Typographers; photographed by James Puckett. CC BY 2.0. Cropped to the six showings. Retrieved 2026-09-10.

Near it

Variable fontx-heightInk trapStressDisplay faceHairline

Modular scaleSuperfamilyText face

What it is made of

what it isa face cut differently for different sizes: more open, more spaced and sturdier small, tighter and finer large
measured on this shelf, and the measurement is a nilnot one of the 84 files carries a variable axis of any kind, so there is no opsz, and no family here has a second cut for a different sizeread off all 84 files on the shelf with fontTools
what the shelf does insteadone drawing per family, scaledwhich is the thing this entry exists to say is not the same as an optical size, and it is what we ship, so the record says it rather than leaving a reader to assume otherwise

Where it came from

Not a modern idea. Metal type was cut size by size out of necessity, and the loss of that is what photocomposition and then digital type quietly introduced. The opsz axis put it back.