Replica was designed on a very reduced and religiously strict grid which defined each and every design decision. In place of the 700 units for standard caps height in Fontlab, the grid was reduced to just 70 units. This arbitrary simplifaction and self-induced restriction strongly influences the shape of each individual glyph.

Further significant characteristics are the bevels on inner and outer corners which visualise the limitations of the grid and which function as a sort of negative ink trap, something that is facilitated by today's sophisticated precision printing technologies. Another defining attribute is the vertical cuts of diagonals which enables users to set Replica very tightly, especially in the «Bold» and the «Heavy» weights.

These specific properties of Replica result in a typeface that has all the features of a classic sans serif font of middle-european descent, while the font is a beautiful antithesis of the notion of 'Vorsprung durch Technik' by exposing its genetically modified DNA.