Typeface Design for CJK Ming Typesetting
A Latin serif built to coexist with Ming
LL Kleisch is a serif typeface designed by Chiachi Chao and released by Lineto in 2024, with font engineering and mastering by Alphabet, Berlin. It was conceived to address the incompatibility between Latin serif and CJK Ming typefaces encountered in multilingual typesetting across Asian design practice. Chao identified formal convergences between Baroque and Neoclassical Latin letterforms and Ming characters—shared stroke models, ductus, and proportion developed through parallel rationalization histories—and used these as the structural basis for the design. The Headline variant offers increased contrast for large-scale use, and the family includes a variable version with weight and contrast axes for fine-tuned matching to specific Ming typefaces.
Set in LL Kleisch Headline
Insights
- Chao grounded the design in Van Djik, Kis, and Fleischman typefaces, whose Baroque and Neoclassical features most closely parallel Ming structural conventions.
- The methodology located specific letter-level formal features—not broad stylistic categories—where Latin and Ming shapes historically converged in stroke model, ductus, and proportion.
- The family includes six weights plus italics, a Headline variant with higher contrast, a Display variant for extra-large sizes, and a fully variable version with weight and contrast axes.
- Font engineering and mastering was by Alphabet, Berlin.
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