“For the first time ever, Apple is ditching Lucida Grande as the OS X system font in favor of Helvetica Neue, which also happens to be the iOS system font,” Suzanne LaBarre reports for Fast Company. “For an operating system that’s used by 80 million people, that’s no small thing. Will it make reading on desktop computers easier? Harder?”
“We asked Tobias Frere-Jones, the famed typeface designer who has worked with some of the world’s best publications and design shops, to offer his insights on what this change means for consumers,” LaBarre reports. “In his view, Apple might have made a mistake.”
Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems have been gradually converging for some time. So it was inevitable that one typographic palette would displace the other. With OS X 10.10, Mac desktops will sport Helvetica everywhere. But I had really hoped it would be the other way around, with the iPhone taking a lesson from the desktop, and adopt Lucida Grande. Check the lock screen on your iPhone. You’ll see Helvetica there, a half-inch tall or larger, and it looks good. Problem is, there aren’t many other places where it looks as good. Despite its grand reputation, Helvetica can’t do everything. It works well in big sizes, but it can be really weak in small sizes… For any text, but particularly in interfaces, our eyes need typefaces that cooperate rather than resist. A super-sharp Retina Display might help, but the real issue is the human eye, and I haven’t heard of any upgrades on the way. – Tobias Frere-Jones
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Tobias and Jonathan’s Excellent Adventure ignites Font War: Inside the design world’s $20 million divorce – April 9, 2014
Typeface designer: Apple’s Jony Ive’ s iOS 7 font ‘beautiful as typeface, totally sucks as an interface’ – November 8, 2013
Beyond Helvetica Neue: The real story behind fonts in iOS 7 – July 9, 2013
Jony Ive changes his mind, thickens system-wide font in iOS 7 beta 3 – July 9, 2013
Changed the font?
That’s it, they’re definitely doomed!
My six penny worth:
I have just upgraded to Yosemite. I own two iPhone 5s, one iPad mini and a 27″ iMac.
Both my wife and I wear glasses for reading.
We both find the legibility of the new system font to be much worse than the previous one. For example, on Safari, the back and forward arrows and the titles on the bookmarks bar are very hard to read because they are too small.
And there doesn’t appear to be way to increase the font size. There should be in Accessibility options in System Preferences.
Well, there is a reason why. Helvetica can’t do everything. Here’s the view of type designer, Tobias Frere-Jones had to say: “Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems have been gradually converging for some time. So it was inevitable that one typographic palette would displace the other. With OS X 10.10, Mac desktops will sport Helvetica everywhere. But I had really hoped it would be the other way around, with the iPhone taking a lesson from the desktop, and adopt Lucida Grande. Check the lock screen on your iPhone. You’ll see Helvetica there, a half-inch tall or larger, and it looks good. Problem is, there aren’t many other places where it looks as good.
Despite its grand reputation, Helvetica can’t do everything. It works well in big sizes, but it can be really weak in small sizes. Shapes like ‘C’ and ‘S’ curl back into themselves, leaving tight “apertures”–the channels of white between a letter’s interior and exterior. So each shape halts the eye again and again, rather than ushering it along the line. The lowercase ‘e,’ the most common letter in English and many other languages, takes an especially unobliging form. These and other letters can be a pixel away from being some other letter, and we’re left to deal with flickers of doubt as we read.
Lucida Grande presents open apertures, inviting the eye to move along sideways through the text. It has worked really well–for years, and for good reason. For any text, but particularly in interfaces, our eyes need typefaces that cooperate rather than resist. A super-sharp Retina Display might help, but the real issue is the human eye, and I haven’t heard of any upgrades on the way.”
I agree, fine as a display font, just don’t try reading slabs of it under say 9-10pt. Fonts when smaller benefit from generous apertures. It’s a bit sciencey! lol