March 28, 2024

A Peek at ‘San Francisco’, Apple’s Newest iOS 9 Font

Along with the many new features and device updates for iPhone 6S and iOS 9, another change has recently been seen in action. The new in-house font San Francisco will be part of Apple’s newest OS’ by default.

This San Francisco font will replace the long-standing Helvetica family. This offers a big change from the iOS 7 release that prompted not only a conforming flat design style, but a fully-featured font across the whole device.

Apple San Francisco font

As quoted from Apple Insider:

San Francisco is used throughout iOS 9, and also brings along a slightly tweaked keyboard design. The new keyboard switches between upper and lowercase keycaps, depending on the position of the shift key.

Overall, the move to San Francisco softens iOS’s appearance slightly thanks to the new typeface’s friendlier design. It’s also easier to read in many instances than Helvetica, a welcome change for users who have complained about the thin lines since iOS 7.

The original intention was to use San Francisco on the Apple watch, but it has since gained traction to move onto all iOS and OS X devices. In fact, some of the newer MacBooks will be using San Francisco as the typeface on their keyboard keys.

Keep your eyes out for this new font and all upcoming releases for future devices. You can also find more information from Apple’s official font page with demos and download links.

Share

Jake is a creative writer and UI designer by trade. You can follow him on twitter @jakerocheleau or learn more at his personal website JakeRocheleau.com.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *