Local
Local pairs a proportional sans, Local Grotesk, with a 616-unit monospaced face, Local Mono. It is built for interfaces, documentation, code, and terminals, and it is the type on this site.
Problem
More tools now answer in paragraphs, so more of the day is spent reading text on screens. I wanted a face that stays calm and legible for long sessions without looking anonymous.
Approach
Local starts from Swiss spacing discipline, then adds open counters, distinct look-alikes like I, l and 1, slightly lower visual weight, and curves whose widest point lands just off-center. It draws on legibility ideas valued by some dyslexic and low-vision readers as a design intention, not a clinical claim.
Implementation
Local Grotesk is a modified TeX Gyre Heros and Local Mono a modified IBM Plex Mono. The repository holds the editable FontForge masters, designspaces for the variable builds, and Python scripts that record each transformation from the upstream sources so a release can be rebuilt deterministically.
Releases ship static, variable, WOFF2, and Nerd Font builds. Each one passes fontlint, the OpenType Sanitizer, HarfBuzz shaping at 400, 550 and 700, exact 616-unit Mono width checks, and variable-axis outline checks on control glyphs.