As of today, Apple has started changing the typeface on its Apple.com website to San Francisco, the font it first debuted alongside the Apple Watch in 2015.
On Apple's homepage and other web pages on the site, the San Francisco typeface is being used in many places where text is displayed, replacing the previous Myriad typeface. Bolder and easier to read, San Francisco has been used on iOS devices and Macs since iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 were introduced in 2015.
San Francisco is a condensed sans-serif that's similar to Helvetica. It was created specifically for small displays like the Apple Watch, with extra spacing between letters to increase legibility. It also works well on larger Retina displays because of its clean design.
San Francisco is the first font Apple has designed in-house in many years. In the 80s and 90s, Apple used several fonts that were created in-house, but the company largely stopped making its own fonts in the early 1990s.
Apple isn't yet using the San Francisco typeface for its entire website, but may continue the transition over the coming days.
(Thanks, Nick!)
Top Rated Comments
Almost as much spacing between those ugly letters as there is between Mac Mini updates!
Was that good?
Next up: Tim Cook saves a baby from a burning building. MR forums: Cook can take the time to save a baby but he can't even make a battery last all day. Wah!
There was a reason why up until now Apple had separate typefaces for user interface and other media. You never saw a print ad set in Chicago or Charcoal. You never had UI elements set in Apple Garamond. Yes, those were specifically design and set for low vs high resolutions, but even with retina screens today typefaces made for user interfaces still look awkward and "cheap" when displayed at headline sizes.
Mark my words, 2017 will be another dull year for Apple.