Typeface Design for Typ 1451

From childhood stencil to ten-cut type family

LL Typ 1451 is a digital typeface designed by Nico Schweizer and Maurice Göldner for Lineto, originating from a plastic writing template Schweizer used to label drawings as a child. First released in 1998 as a family of four weights, the typeface was substantially expanded in 2019 with ten new cuts — five regular and five italic. The 2019 revision involved redrawing the original regular cuts and developing new italics, with curves updated to current digital type design standards and optical corrections from the 1998 version reassessed. Font engineering and mastering was handled by Alphabet, Berlin.

Set in LL Typ 1451

Insights

The typeface name derives directly from the DIN number inscribed on the original plastic writing template.
During the 2019 revision, the original regular cuts were redrawn alongside the development of new italics.
Curves originally modelled on the physical template were selectively updated to meet current digital type design standards.
Reassessing optical corrections from the 1998 iteration was an explicit part of the 2019 revision process.