Typeface Design for Lineto’s Replica Library

A 10× grid reduction as a design system

LL Replica is a sans-serif designed by NORM (Dimitri Bruni and Manuel Krebs), released by Lineto in 2008, with font engineering and mastering by Alphabet, Berlin. Conceived for both text setting and large-scale applications, it was built on a self-imposed 70-unit grid—reduced from the standard 700-unit cap height in FontLab—a constraint that strongly shaped individual glyphs. The family covers four weights with matching italics; a monospaced cut in regular weight was released independently.

Set in LL Replica

Insights

Reducing the design grid to 70 units (from the conventional 700) created systematic proportional constraints that strongly influenced glyph construction across the family.
Corner bevels on inner and outer angles act as negative ink traps, a structural inversion of a traditional typographic technique.
Vertical cuts on diagonal strokes allow very tight setting, particularly effective in the bold and heavy weights.
A standalone monospaced cut was developed in the regular weight and treated as an independent release.