Typeface Design for Geigy Duplex

No reflow, ever—from Light to Black, Roman to Italic

Designed by Robert Huber between 2022 and 2024 and released by Lineto in 2024, with font engineering and mastering by Alphabet, Berlin. LL Geigy Duplex is a variable typeface built on the duplex (uniwidth) model, meaning every glyph occupies identical horizontal space across the full weight and slant range—Light to Black, Roman to Italic—eliminating text reflow when switching styles. The concept connects to an early-twentieth-century hot-metal convention, where fixed glyph widths allowed compositors to swap weights without resetting entire paragraphs, adapted here for contemporary use.

Set in LL Geigy Duplex

Insights

Achieving uniwidth behaviour across both a weight axis and a slant axis required exhaustive analysis and redrawing of glyph proportions, metrics, and kerning throughout the entire Geigy weight range.
The fixed-spacing model offers a practical advantage in screen interfaces where elements such as buttons toggle between light and bold states on hover, since no layout shift occurs.
The gradual variable axes make the family particularly suited to animated typography, where smooth optical interpolation between weights or slants can be exploited as a visual effect.
Font engineering and mastering was handled by Alphabet, Berlin.