How to write in an unusual font on iPhone. What does the San Francisco font look like?


Apple Company preparing to introduce a new version operating system OS X – 10.11. Among special attention deserves the use of a new system font. Let's not wait for the official presentation, let's try it on right now.

The news is that OS X 10.11(and with it mobile iOS version 9) will receive a new one system font somewhat amuses users and completely discourages software developers for the Mac platform. Indeed, if Apple completely switches to the font “San Francisco” developers face a tedious process of marking up the interface of their applications. Well, apparently the “policy of constancy” has changed to a policy of “unnecessary developments” and there are two options: either you and I are skeptics, or Apple is really not working on what the user would like.

Apple and fonts

The company's love affair with fonts dates back to the time of its founding. And my penchant for calligraphy Steve Jobs showed when developing the logo. Then the proud name of the Apple Computer brand was written in font Motter Tektura, developed in 1975 by an Austrian designer Othmar Motter.

The choice in favor of Motter Tektura was due to its innovation and “technological look”. In 1984, the Macintosh computer entered the market, and such an important event was met with the use of a completely new (within the company) font Apple Garamond. Original ITC Garamond was created in 1977 by Tony Stan. Its peculiarity was high degree density (about 60-70% compared to traditional fonts).

This is exactly what Apple liked. Famous slogan of the company “Think different” - “Think differently”, like a number of Apple advertising brochures, were executed using Apple font Garamond. Until the exit Mac OS X 10.3 Apple Garamond was supplied separately as part of a designer font package.

In 2002, the company decided to change the scenery and chose the family Adobe Myriad. Two designers worked on it at once - Robert Slimbach And Carol Twombly commissioned by Adobe.

All text information, accompanying the release of such products as iPod Photo, iPod 5th generation, iPod Nano(1st-2nd generation), designed using our own modification of the font Myriad – Podium Sans(with the characteristic spelling of the letters “M” and “Y”).

All iterations of the operating room Mac systems OS X, later renamed OS X, (from 1999 to 2014) received the same system font from its developers - Lucida Grande. With the release of the anniversary OS X 10.10 Yosemite, the company decided to give users and new font. Helvetica Neue confidently entered the life of a poppy grower. Despite a number of similarities, Helvetica Neue, according to Apple designers, is more economical in distribution on a horizontal line.

The Helvetica Neue font was developed back in the early days of the computer era by a Swiss typographer Max Miedinger back in 1957 in Basel (Switzerland). The font was originally named Neau Haas Grotesk in honor of the ancient printing factory Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei. In 1960 it was renamed to the usual Helvetica, which literally translates to “Swiss”. Apple chose the font as the basis for the system font in OS X Yosemite Helvetica Neue, developed in early 1983.

But before the eyes of users have had time to get used to the “new Swiss” in a year, the designers introduce us to the new style of letters. In the recently presented new Apple product Watch family font is used San Francisco. Does he look familiar to you? You are not mistaken. It is with San Francisco that flaunts on the layout of the new 12-inch MacBook.

The problem with such a forced transition of the company to a new font lies not only in the company’s desire to unify the interface of all operating systems created for different types Apple devices, but also in choosing a universal font. After all, over its more than 50-year history, Helvetica has ceased to be that elegant, perfect and rational font that was created by Swiss designers.

Weaknesses of Helvetica Neue:

  • expansion of the letter style of the entire family;
  • modified font thickness;
  • imperfect algorithm for rounding the intraletter space;
  • Constant adaptations to Linotypes (printing equipment) led to the fact that the font became “too square”.

The forced compromises that designers made for the benefit of technology turned the font from a work of art into a soulless set of similar letters and numbers with similar characteristics.

In the end, Apple decided to return to its roots and opt for the San Francisco font, developed more than 30 years ago and used on the first Macintosh computers. The font was specially developed internally by NeXT, one of the most talented designers Suzanne Kara. The original San Francisco is strikingly different from what is used in smartwatches today Apple Watch.


First San font Francisco by Apple

San Francisco for 2014 is a completely new font family specifically developed in-house for wearable accessories.

Properly compacted letters remain readable and at the same time do not take up too much space on the horizontal line. When creating the font, Apple redesigned the styles of all letters and paid a lot of attention to punctuation marks.

So, the new San Francisco font is preparing to enslave the OS X and iOS platforms. Well, let's see what it will look like?

Replacing the font

So let's replace the standard Helvetica Neue font with the one in new version Apple is preparing the operating system for us.


After loading OS X Yosemite, the system font will be changed:

Apple products are fashionable. iPhone and iPad developers use a recognizable design and a special iOS font, which gives the stylish gadgets a special elegance. Users of Apple gadgets are often entrepreneurs, businessmen, architects and designers who have special reverence for the text styles used both in the IOS itself and in applications installed on a tablet or smartphone.

iOS font applications:

  • Fonts;
  • FontBrowser;
  • Font Designer;
  • Font Dresser Free;
  • FontMaker;
  • Cool Fonts;
  • Phonto;
  • Textizer;
  • What The Font;
  • Super Txt;
  • Byte Font 2;
  • Font Gallery Preview;
  • Tapefaces.

The most popular fonts for iPhone and iPad

Apple is developing dynamically, constantly improving the design of its devices and operating system. The boxes of all Apple gadgets, without exception, use the sans-serif font Myriad Pro Semibold, also used by Rolls-Royse, Walmart and even Google. The keyboard of any Mac must have VagRounded written on it.

The interface of these devices is used by Lucida Grande. For iPhone and iPad before availability Retina display the Helvetica font was used, followed by Helvetica neue. This typeface is not exclusive - it is successfully used by the 3M trademark and the BMW concern. Despite the high image component, many experts are skeptical about the practicality of the styles used in Apple gadgets. The company’s specialists have foreseen this scenario, so every user of an Apple smartphone or tablet will be able to customize the information displayed on the screen.

How to Add Fonts on iOS

Any owner of an iPhone or iPad can go to and select any application from the ones listed above. This option will allow you to use daily work with the gadget some special typeface (for example, Roboto Font). iOS font apps are often used by designers for their projects.

How to change fonts on iOS

Users of Apple devices do not have to use third-party applications to solve the font problem with iOS - all they need to do is use the built-in capabilities of the gadgets. Owners of branded tablets and smartphones have ample opportunities to change the text style in the settings, as well as the Dynamic Type option (optical size adjustment), integrated into iOS 7.

Dynamic Type

The default iOS 7 font is Helvetica neue. You can change the style of text to improve readability using multi-level construction, which is used to visually compare the characteristics of the fonts used.

Special sliders with seven levels of fixation ( Settings – General – Text Size) will allow you to quickly adjust the size of the text displayed in the application. For those who are not satisfied with the given maximum value iOS font settings, mobile platform developers have introduced an option Settings – General – Accessibility.

Users mobile offices On iPhone and iPad, we have more than once encountered the problem of lack of necessary fonts. In this case, they are replaced by others, as a result of which the entire layout of the document may “fly off”. You can solve the problem using the utility. It allows you to add missing fonts to the system. This official application, which can be used without jailbreaking your gadgets.

Installing AnyFont provides the ability to add any TrueType (TTF) and OpenType (OTF) fonts to iOS. Of course, you won’t be able to change the system font without jailbreaking, but thanks to AnyFont you can significantly expand the list of fonts in third-party applications, such as iWork and MS Office.

AnyFont makes it extremely easy to install TTF and OFT files. You can easily find font files on the Internet. After that, you just need to transfer them to mobile device, for example, by sending by e-mail or using the Dropbox client.

When you launch it for the first time, AnyFont will show empty list fonts and will inform the user that the application catalog should be replenished. For example, let’s send the Calibri TTF file to the gadget. We will use the Mail program: open mail client, find the letter with the font, click on the attached file and select “Open in AnyFont”.

AnyFont will open with the Calibri TTF font. Now you need to “tap” on the font in the list, after which a large “A” button will appear with installation instructions. If you need to preview the font, you can use the preview button.

During the font installation process, we need to go to the device settings and install the configuration profile. Click the install button, and then click “Install” again. The system will issue a warning that the OS is about to connect a new font and this will change iOS settings. Click “Finish” to complete the installation of the system font.

Now all that remains is to close office application, where you need to use Calibri. When we run it again, a new font will appear among the available font options.

If you repeat the same steps with a ZIP archive containing several fonts, all of them will be installed on the system automatically.

To remove a font from iOS, you need to go to the “Settings -> General -> Profile” menu and click the “Delete” button for any unwanted font.

iPhones and iPads can be great productivity devices. New iOS features 11 will make working with them more convenient. But due to the fact that iOS is closed system, there will always be disadvantages. One of them is the lack of customization options. You can't add additional fonts in MS Word or Keynote. But of course there is third party application, which will help you with this.

All Fonts is a $0.99 app for iPhone and iPad that allows you to install any TTF and OTF font files directly into your system. This means that any application that reads the font settings from the device will be able to display additional fonts. Applications like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and iWork already support this option. So do small text applications. Installing fonts is quite complicated, but once you're done with it, you won't have to configure anything else in the applications themselves. As expected for Apple, everything will work automatically.

How to transfer fonts from computer toiPhoneoriPad

All fonts in the form of files can be transferred from a computer to an iOS device with using Wi-Fi Transfer. But this only works when both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

First, prepare the font files on your computer.

Step 1: Launch the application All Fonts on your iPhone or iPad. Open the tab Transferred Fonts. It should be empty, and at the top you will find a URL for importing files.

Step 2: On your computer, open Chrome browser or Safari and enter the URL that is displayed in the application.

Step 3: You will see an interface window. Drag font files from the folder into this window and they will be automatically transferred. Make sure your iOS device is turned on and the All Fonts app is open.

Fonts will appear in the tab TransferredFonts above.

How to import fonts fromDropboxoniPhoneoriPad

If you've saved your fonts to Dropbox, you don't even need a computer to install them.

Step 1: Open Dropbox and find the font you want to install. Click on it.

Step 2: Dropbox will tell you that it is impossible to get a preview of the font. Press Menu and select Export.

Step 4: Now select "copy toAll Fonts» .

Now All Fonts will open and you will see the list at the top Transferred Fonts a new font has been added.

How to install a custom font oniPhoneoriPad

Step 1: When the font is transferred, it will appear in the Transferred Fonts list. Click on it and you will see a preview. A button will appear below Install Font. Click on it.

Step 2: You will be prompted to open the font in Settings. Click "confirm".

Step 3: A window will pop up in the settings asking if you want to install the font. Click « install».

Step 4: In the second window, click on again "install".

The font will now be installed. Repeat this process for any other font you want to install.

The screenshots show the installation process from Dropbox, but you can import fonts from any other app that supports this feature. The following applications will also work: Mail, iCould Drive, OneDrive.

How to use fonts oniPhoneoriPad

Now that your chosen font is installed, you need to learn how to use it. We'll use Keynote as an example, but other apps work the same way.

Simply search any app for font selection in settings and your installed custom fonts will appear in the list.

Step 1: First, restart the application so that it detects the newly installed fonts.

Step 2: In Keynote or other iWork apps, tap the text, then select the brush icon. Now find the fonts item, click on it and find the font you need.

Step 3: To select a new font, simply click on it. If you have installed multiple versions of the font, click on the small " i» , to choose alternative version font like italic etc.

Alternative: AnyFonts

All Fonts is not the only application with this functionality. We chose it because it has the most extensive set of font import options. The only problem this application The problem is that you can't install multiple fonts at the same time. For each font, you need to repeat the lengthy process again.

If this is too much for you, check out the AnyFonts app. It costs $1.99 and is very similar to All Fonts. But here you can install several fonts at once and open archives with files directly in the application. If you buy the pro version, you can add over 1000 fonts from the app itself.

Apple has used the Helvetica font set as the system font for iOS since release first iPhone. They also replaced Lucida Grande in Mac OS X starting with version 10.10 Yosemite. So why has Apple now decided to get rid of the world's most beloved font?

iOS 9 is now officially available to everyone, and a new font family called San Francisco has subtly replaced Helvetica Neue.


Helvetica (left) and San Francisco (right)

By this point, they were already used in the Apple Watch. Now San Francisco has become one standard font for all platform products: Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Apple has used the Helvetica family as the system font for iOS since the release of the first iPhone. They also replaced Lucida Grande in Mac OS X starting with version 10.10 Yosemite. So why has Apple now decided to get rid of the world's most beloved font?

Small sizes are Helvetica's weak point

There is an opinion that Helvetica is not suitable for small texts. When Helvetica replaced the previous family in Mac OS X Yosemite, many designers found the replacement unsuitable.


“Helvetica sucks” from Erik Spiekermann’s blog.

You can verify the low readability of Helvetica as follows. Type small text and blur it. Some of its fragments will be “mixed” so that it becomes difficult to make out their contents. They say Apple developed the San Francisco family precisely to make small text on the Apple Watch more legible.

However, the resolution of modern smart devices exceeds resolution printed edition, and texts on the iPhone are not always as small as on the Apple Watch. Why then did Apple make a replacement not only in the Apple Watch, but also in iOS and Mac OS X?

San Francisco - diverse
San Francisco fonts have many features that make them easy to read. In fact, the San Francisco version for Apple Watch and the version for iOS/Mac are two different fonts.

A font family called “SF” is used for iOS/Mac, while the Apple Watch uses “SF Compact”. You can see the difference in rounded letters such as 'o' and 'e'. The vertical lines of the SF Compact are made flatter than those of the SF.

This difference causes text typed with SF Compact to have more space between characters, resulting in text that is more legible when read on small devices such as the Apple Watch.

In addition to this, each of the families is divided into two more subfamilies: “Text” and “Display”. Apple calls this “Optical Sizes”. The Text subfamily is designed for small-sized texts, while the Display subfamily is for large-sized texts.


San Francisco font family

As mentioned above, in sans serif fonts (or sans serifs) such as Helvetica, two adjacent letters “mix”, and letters such as ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘s’ become very similar friend on each other with small text sizes.


Comparison of indents between characters in fonts of the Display and Text subfamilies


Comparison of fonts of the Display and Text subfamilies using the example of a single character

The Text subfamily, at the same time, is designed in such a way that the indents between characters in it are increased compared to the characters in the Display subfamily, and the gaps in them are expanded to improve readability with small text sizes.

San Francisco is dynamic

One of the great things about San Francisco is that the headset is dynamically optimized. Display and Text replace each other according to the size of the displayed text. The threshold here is set to 20pt.

Designers and engineers don't have to worry about choosing the right option from the family. We just add the system font to the UILabel, for example. The system itself will determine which headset you need.

However, what's truly impressive about San Francisco fonts is how they display colons. Usually in other fonts we see it right above the bottom line, so in cases where it is located between numbers, the colon is not vertically centered. However, in the San Francisco family of fonts, this alignment occurs automatically.


Automatically align colon vertically to center

San Francisco came to us from the digital age

As you can see, San Francisco fonts are designed and designed to make text of any size and on any device easy to read.

Helvetica, which they replaced, was created in Switzerland in 1957, when no digital devices. It is, however, still used by many companies as a corporate font, and will no doubt continue to be used in the future as a good classic font.

San Francisco, on the contrary, is a modern font. His typeface changes dynamically, according to the context. It can be called a kind of “native font” of the digital age.


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