over 7 years ago from Claude Ayitey, UX/UI Designer at DevCongress, BoughtSpot
Did anyone realise that Apple is now using the Sans Francisco font on the new Macbook keyboards? It's quite a pleasant surprise.
Nice spot. Agreed, it's a pleasant change:
It seems like a logical thing to standardize their typography, and I believe it's also cheaper for them on their part. It does seem like they're in a awkward position with Helvetica Neue, Myriad Pro, and now San Francisco.
I didn't. Not a huge fan of the font, at all.
Any reason, or just aren't?
A lot of it is preference. I did the system wide terminal deal back in 2014. The font looked really off. Maybe I'll revisit it!
Why not?
I think it's cool, would love to use it on my MacBook.
I'm not a fan at all either.
The x-height and ascenders give "j" and "f", etc., a stubby look that compromises legibility.
Same with descenders.
Might make sense for Watch, my eyes don't need that kind of strain San Francisco might bring on my desktop day after day.
I like the font. I think its about time, they've been running with VAG rounded for ages. Thats not to say its a bad font, its great.
But Apple are producing devices for a digital landscape that is rapidly evolving and changing.
So wether they like it or not, people will look at the VAG keyboards and start to see them dating.
Its a great brand move - unifying the watch, keyboard, hopefully Yosemite too!
In fact I wonder if it works as a good device font replacement on Yosemite.. has anyone tried this?
You can try that yourself https://github.com/supermarin/YosemiteSanFranciscoFont
There is an installer up on Github to replace system font with San Fransisco on Yosemite. I think it could work well. The last time I tried it there were a few weird bugs (alignment mainly).
I think this is the one: https://github.com/supermarin/YosemiteSanFranciscoFont
edit: Looks like someone beat me to it.
I've had it as my device font for months. First few days was weird, but now Helvetica looks so dated in comparison.
San Fransisco is friendlier, more space-efficient and easier to read - especially on non-retina screens. I genuinely love it.
It even makes error screens look nice:
http://i.imgur.com/kYRA06e.png
Only issues I've found exist within Chrome.
San Fransico on iOS 8.2 http://cl.ly/image/270k2E1D1D22
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