How is Apple’s “San Francisco” font better than Helvetica Neue?
They need their own voice, and a custom typeface gives them just that. Apple is famous for being a leader in design, so something just doesn’t sit right with them using the world’s most popular font across all of their devices. This is why you’ll see it on signs in airports and subways the world over. Helvetica Neue (and the original Helvetica) are known for being a bit “stale.” They’re generally used when you don’t want the letters to get in the way of the information. Helvetica Neue was designed in 1983, and pixels weren’t a consideration back then. Screens are made up of pixels, and, as you can learn from Garamond, pixels aren’t typography’s best friend.
It wasn’t designed with screens in mind. While Helvetica Neue is a great typeface, it wasn’t enough for Apple. Helvetica Neue was rework of Helvetica, designed in 1983 to iron out some inconsistencies due to previous technological quirks. In fact, there’s an entire documentary about typography, named “Helvetica.” Helvetica Neue, the greatest font in the world?īy now, it’s no secret to any type enthusiast that Helvetica is considered one of – if not the – greatest font in the world. Some graphics toward the end of this post are also from that talk. Some of what I’m about to explain is sourced from this talk by Apple’s type designer Antonio Cavedoni (~30mins). But, Apple made some key changes that make it a much better – maybe even perfect – typeface for their platforms. That’s because San Francisco is so heavily inspired by Helvetica Neue. Helvetica Neue and San Francisco are easy to mistake for one another. *Or* kick it old school with Akzidenz Grotesk Would have loved to see a humanist typeface in iOS 7. Personally, I always thought Helvetica Neue was a little too stale to go with the livelier designs of Apple’s products, when it shipped with iOS 7. This font quietly shipped with the Apple Watch, in WatchOS, and will also be in the new tvOS on Apple TV. It’s a best-seller (#18 on all of Amazon).Īnyone who has upgraded to iOS 9, or OS X El Capitan has probably noticed the system font has changed to Apple’s San Francisco Font. Visual Design Course | White Space Course San Francisco Font: Apple improved on a classic.
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