Univers Next is a completely reworked version of the original Univers typeface family by Adrian Frutiger. Based on a student project he drew in the late 1940s, Frutiger completed the Univers family in 1957 for Deberny and Peignot, where he was a staff designer. As the first large type family to be conceived in a wide range of widths and weights right from its inception, with a unique systemized numbering system, Univers was truly a trailblazer.

In 1997 Adrian Frutiger and the design staff at Linotype completed the large joint project that resulted in Linotype Univers, a cohesive font family of 63 weights. The existing weights were completely redrawn, making the proportions more consistent and improving fine details such as curves and thick-to-thin stroke ratios. By following Frutiger’s original designs, Univers’s humanist characteristics were underlined.

Linotype Univers was further extended in 2010, and renamed Univers Next to harmonize with the naming of the other type families in Linotype’s prestigious Platinum Collection.