Typeface Design for Lineto’s Courier Sans

A student rule-break that became a released typeface

Designed by James Goggin and Lineto, Courier Sans originated as a student project at Ravensbourne in 1994—a response to a 'Courier Only' typography brief, solved by removing all serifs from the standard Macintosh system font. First released by Lineto in 2001 with carefully corrected proportional spacing, the family was redrawn in 2016. During development of italic cuts, the project split into two 2019 releases: LL Courier Sans Mono (true monospace, returning to typewriter roots) and the fully proportional LL Courier Sans. Font engineering and mastering by Alphabet, Berlin.

Set in LL Courier Sans, LL Courier Sans Mono

Insights

The 2001 release was proportional despite visual resemblance to a monospace; spacing was manually corrected for harmony.
Development of italic cuts led to a 2019 split: one branch restored true monospacing, the other became fully proportional.
The original concept functioned as a loophole argument—compliance through redefinition rather than outright rule-breaking.