About UN-11
Introducing UN-11, a rare cut of the Swiss classic by Adrian Frutiger faithfully digitized and carefully re-engineered for today’s typographic universe.
In 1961, IBM unveiled the Selectric Typewriter, featuring a revolutionary type ‘golf ball’ that replaced the traditional typebar mechanism. To expand their font catalog and promote this new technology, IBM enlisted Adrian Frutiger to adapt his iconic Univers, modifying it to suit the machine’s specific constraints and metrics. The result was an alternate version of Univers with unit-based spacing, marking an exciting and distinct departure from conventional monospaced type. To Frutiger, the font’s charmingly uneven rhythm uniquely combined mechanical precision with a human touch.
Today, UN-11’s idiosyncrasies stand out in a world of polished interfaces, rounded corners, and total easing. Throughout history, versions of Univers have been adapted for various typesetting technologies, from letterpress to phototype to PostScript, but none with quite the same unique flair as this. UN-11 is finally available, finely tuned for contemporary print and screen environments.
Available Cuts
- Regular
- Italic
- Bold
Source Material

UN-11-R type “golf ball” for the IBM Selectric Typewriter (1961). This revolutionary technology introduced a unit-based spacing system between characters and enabled users to easily change typefaces.

IBM Selectric type specimen binder (1967)

Univers specimen for the Selectric typewriter (1967)

Typewritten page of IBM’s modified Univers (1961)

Digitization of UN-11 from high-res scan to vector drawing

Illustration by Adrian Frutiger from Typography and the IBM Selectric (1967), demonstrating letterform modifications to compensate for printing distortions

Various illustrations by Adrian Frutiger from Typography and the IBM Selectric (1967)

Diagram of typewriter parts from the IBM Selectric manual (1971)

Instructions for changing the “golf ball” on an IBM Selectric typewriter (c. 1961)

IBM Selectric advertisement highlighting its new “golf ball” technology (c. 1961)

Exploded view diagram of an IBM Selectric typewriter
Type Specimen
Special Features









Typetester
Glyphs Overview
Letters
Figures
Latin Supplement and Extension
Ligatures
Stylistic Sets
Punctuation and Symbols
Case Sensitive Forms
Superscript and Subscript
Fractions and Ordinals
Currency and Mathematical Operators
Tabular Figures
Square Figures
Circled Letters
Roman Numbers
Arrows
OpenType Features
Case Sensitive Forms
[SIC] (PARENTHESES) {A,B}
RE: SUBJECT XLR-CABLE
« MERCI » ‹DANKE›
[SIC] (PARENTHESES) {A,B}
RE: SUBJECT XLR-CABLE
« MERCI » ‹DANKE›
Contextual Alternates
Stylistic Set 1
Tabular Figures
111 CHF
111 CHF
Superscript
Information
Technical Data
Encoding:Latin Extended
File Formats:OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF2
Version:1.0
Language Support
Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Bosnian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chiga, Colognian, Cornish, Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Embu, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Filipino, Finnish, French, Friulian, Galician, German, Gusii, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ido, Indonesian, Interlingua, Irish, Italian, Javanese, Jju, Kabuverdianu, Kalaallisut, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lojban, Low German, Lower Sorbian, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Manx, Māori, Meru, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyanja, Nyankole, Occitan, Oromo, Polish, Portuguese, Rejang, Romanian, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Shambala, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Soga, Somali, South Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German, Taita, Taroko, Teso, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen, Upper Sorbian, Vunjo, Walloon, Walser, Welsh, Western Frisian, Wolastoqey, Xhosa, Zulu