Gudrun Zapf von Hesse (2 January 1918 – 13 December 2019) was a German book-binder, calligrapher and typographer.

[2][4] Her calligraphy practice began during this apprenticeship; in her acceptance address for the Frederic W. Goudy Award, she said "One afternoon a week we had to write very simple letters.

I was not satisfied with this form of instruction; therefore, I taught myself at home, from a detailed examination of the works of Rudolf Koch and Edward Johnston.”[4] After completing her apprenticeship in 1937, Zapf von Hesse stayed on as an assistant in Dorfner's bindery until 1940.

[4] Potsdam was under the Soviet occupation after World War II, and according to Zapf von Hesse it was "not a good place at all to start a new life".

[2] From 1944 to 1945, she taught bookbinding and calligraphy as therapy for soldiers with head injuries at a hospital in Bad Ischl, Austria.

[2][3] After World War II, in 1946, she opened her own book bindery on the premises of the Bauer type foundry in Frankfurt.

[9] In 1948, Zapf von Hesse opened a bookbinding studio with one apprentice in the Stempel Type Foundry building.

[4] Her bindery at Stempel closed in 1955 when her son Christian Ludwig was born,[4] but she continued designing typefaces "as time and family duties allowed.

[4] After receiving her Master's Diploma in bookbinding, she developed a style "simple and pure in decoration, carefully executed in every detail".

[11] In her acceptance speech for the 1991 Frederic Goudy Award, she stated, "In my opinion, the best foundation for creating new alphabets is an intensive study of calligraphy".

[12] The most comprehensive[9] collection of examples of Gudrun Zapf von Hesse's artistic work is the book Gudrun Zapf von Hesse: Bindings, Handwritten Books, Type Faces, Examples of Lettering and Drawing published by Mark Batty in 2002.

"While not as widely known as that of her prolific husband, [Zapf von Hesse’s] work is also beautiful and typographically vital, and her career has also been long and productive.