SimplexSans is a modular, grid-based display typeface inspired by the era of manual lettering — a time when type wasn’t designed on screens, but drawn by hand with ruler and compass. The typeface was originally created in the early 1990s, digitized in 1998, and redesigned and completed in 2025.
Simplex Sans was developed as a typographic experiment rooted in analog construction techniques. Every glyph is based on a strict modular system, allowing the shapes to be drawn manually on graph paper using only a ruler and a compass. The result is a display typeface that feels both mechanical and human, rational and playful.
Design Characteristics:
- Geometric, monolinear construction
- Based on a triospace grid system, no kerning!
- Normal characters (a, b, n, etc.) are 2 units wide, narrow characters (I, i, l, etc.) 1 are unit wide and wide characters (W, m, etc.) are 3 units wide
- Designed for display use: headlines, signage, editorial experiments
- Trispace font: to allow rhythmic typographic patterns without relying on variable widths or kerning
- No optical corrections — all shapes are purely constructed and follow the logic of the grid
- Special characters are typically drawn with half the stroke width
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