Here's a mockup of OS X Yosemite with San Francisco as the typeface instead of Helvetica. http://t.co/xwzX5P6O8F pic.twitter.com/Ee9mSZ6Q5D
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw) November 18, 2014
Regardless of how ubiquitous Apple intend San Francisco to become, I can’t help but feel that it’s a poor solution to an admittedly difficult problem.
Whilst a few commenters have drawn a comparison with Google Roboto, San Francisco actually appears to be an attempt to merge Neue Helvetica with DIN: wherever San Francisco differs from Helvetica, it matches DIN, and vice versa.
San Francisco has a number of issues that you will also find in Helvetica and DIN, the difference of course is that neither Helvetica nor DIN were designed for the screen. San Francisco does have a certain visual rhythm that appeals, but there is a conspicuous awareness of a pixel grid. The meeting points of the strokes are not acute enough, the letters don’t lead into each other, and there is simply too little distinction between letters.
Google managed to commission a good typeface in Roboto, Mozilla commissioned a great typeface in Fira Sans. How hard can it be for Apple, a global, multi-billion dollar company to get something as fundamental as typography right?
Featured image uses San Francisco image via Shutterstock.
Ben Moss
Ben Moss has designed and coded work for award-winning startups, and global names including IBM, UBS, and the FBI. When he’s not in front of a screen he’s probably out trail-running.
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