Forum

Forum is a serif drawn by Denis Masharov in 2011 around Roman epigraphic letterforms, the capital shapes cut into stone rather than written with a pen. Its defining feature is flared terminals: strokes that widen as they approach the baseline and cap line instead of resolving into conventional serifs, producing stress-modulated forms that sit somewhere between serif and sans.

That is the same letterform DNA as Optima, which is why Forum is the standard free substitute for it. Both build their elegance out of modulated stems and flared endings rather than applied serifs. Forum is the more classically inscriptional of the two — closer to its Roman roots — so it suits luxury branding, cultural and museum work, and titling where a note of antiquity is welcome. Where Optima's neutrality is the point, the difference will show.