San Francisco is a
neo-grotesque
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands o ...
made by
Apple Inc. It was first released to developers on November 18, 2014.
It is the first new typeface designed at Apple in nearly twenty years and has been inspired by
Helvetica
Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...
and
DIN
DIN or Din or din may refer to:
People and language
* Din (name), people with the name
* Dīn, an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion from which the name originates
* Dinka language (ISO 639 code: din), spoken by ...
.
The
macOS Catalina
macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and released to the ...
font Galvji is similar to the San Francisco variant SF Pro Text but has lower leading and bigger spacing.
Variants
Note: SF has the codename SFNS in macOS and SFUI in iOS, regardless of the official name.
Stylistic fonts exist, which are mainly present in the iOS 16 Lock Screen, Apple Cash, watchOS Watch Faces, and several promotional materials. These include chiseled, stenciled, semi-rounded, dotted, prisma, railed, and slab-serif versions.
Some variants have two
optical sizes: "display" for large and "text" for small text. Compared to display, the letters in text have larger
apertures and more generous
letter-spacing
Examples of headline letter spacing
In typography, letter spacing, character spacing or tracking is an optically consistent adjustment to the space between letters to change the visual density of a line or block of text. Letter spacing is distin ...
. The operating system automatically chooses the display optical size for sizes of at least 20
points
Point or points may refer to:
Places
* Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States
* Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland
* Points ...
, and the text optical size otherwise.
Variable grades were eventually added in newer versions.
SF Pro/SF UI
UI font for
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
,
iOS,
iPadOS
iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product ...
, and
tvOS
tvOS (formerly known as Apple TV Software) is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second-generation, ...
. In 2017, a revised version, SF Pro was introduced, supporting an expanded list of weights, optical sizes, glyphs and languages. SF Pro Rounded (codename SFUIRounded) was introduced in 2018.
* SF Pro Text comes with 9 weights with their italics. Initially had only 6 weights when introduced.
* SF Pro Display comes with 9 weights with their italics.
* SF Pro Rounded comes with 9 weights. It has the same figure as the "display" version but with rounded corners.
These fonts, for use in different languages, can be found on the Apple website in their corresponding regions of use as variations of SF Pro:
* SF Pro AR is an
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
font; SF Pro JP is a
Japanese font. SF Pro KR is a
Korean font, and SF Pro TH is a
Thai font.
* SF Pro SC, SF Pro TC and SF Pro HK are Chinese fonts; they are labeled as the PingFang family.
SF Pro is a variable font that also has variable widths in conjunction with weights, optical sizes, and grades. One of them is a print-optimized variant, SF Hello exists, which is restricted to Apple employees and permitted contractors and vendors, and is therefore unavailable for public use. This results in three fonts derived from SF Pro as shown below;
SF Condensed
A condensed variant of SF Pro.
*SF Condensed Text has 6 weights.
* SF Condensed Display has 9 weights.
Variants are internally named SF Cash, SF Shields, and SF Condensed Photos, but those are all offshoots from the same font.
SF Compressed
A compressed variant of SF Pro. DIfferent from SF Condensed, vertical edges are fully straight, and its kerning is much closer.
SF Expanded
Internally called SF Wide, it is an expanded variant of SF Pro.
SF Compact
Initial font introduced with the
Apple Watch and
watchOS, but was later rebranded as SF Compact with the introduction of SF UI at WWDC 2015. Different from SF Pro, its characters' round curves are flatter, allowing the letters to be laid out with more space between them, thereby making the text more legible at small sizes, which Apple Watch small screen demands.
SP Compact Rounded was introduced in 2016.
* SF Compact Text comes with 9 weights with their italics. Initially had only 6 weights when introduced.
* SF Compact Display comes with 9 weights with their italics.
* SF Compact Rounded comes with 9 weights. It has the same figure as the "display" version but with rounded corners.
SF Mono
A monospaced variant. UI font for the
Terminal
Terminal may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together
* Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line
* Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devi ...
,
Console
Console may refer to:
Computing and video games
* System console, a physical device to operate a computer
** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device
** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
, and
Xcode
Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 14.2, released on December 13, ...
applications. It was introduced at WWDC 2016.
* SF Mono comes with 6 weights with their italics.
SF Camera
Introduced on September 10, 2019 at Apple's keynote;
Phil Schiller mentioned it while summarizing the camera updates on
iPhone 11 Pro
The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are smartphones designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Serving as the Apple's flagship models of the 13th-generation of iPhones, they succeeded the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, respectively, ...
. Different from SF Pro, this variant has a boxier design which gives an industrial and professional look. Its figure and
tracking are similar to SF Compact Text.
Other fonts
SF Serif (
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
)
A serif variant. It was introduced as SF Serif (codename Serif UI) at WWDC 2018 as the UI font for the redesigned
Apple Books app for
IOS 12. It was officially released under the name
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
on the Apple Developer site on June 3, 2019.
*New York Small comes with 6 weights with their italics.
* New York Medium comes with 6 weights with their italics.
* New York Large comes with 6 weights with their italics.
*New York Extra Large comes with 6 weights with their italics.
The font includes
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark ...
features for lining and old-style figures in both proportional and tabular widths. Despite Apple having a
font with the same name with the
bitmap format for the original Macintosh (and later converted to
TrueType format), it is unrelated to this design.
Variable Fonts
Apple introduced the
OpenType Font Variations feature of their SF fonts in WWDC20. It is included as a TrueType Font in the installer file on the Developer website. On WWDC22, variable width option is introduced to the font family.
* SF Pro feature variable weights, variable widths, and variable optical sizes of between "text" and "display".
* SF Pro Italic, and SF Compact feature variable weights and variable optical sizes of between "text" and "display".
* SF Compact Italic features variable weights but has "text" optical size only.
* New York and New York Italic feature variable weights and variable optical sizes between "small" and "extra large".
SF Symbols
SF Symbols refers to symbols and icons used in the Apple operating systems. To fit Apple's objectives of core functionality and "easy to use"-ness, these symbols are designed using Apple's visual language and unified design elements. They also include the
squircle instead of standard rounded corners for a more comfortable look, similar to what Apple has used in their other designs. By using unified symbols, users can experience the easiness and intuitiveness when interacting between Apple's devices, services, and apps.
Apple's symbols are included as glyphs in the font file of SF Pro, SF Pro Rounded, SF Compact, and SF Compact Rounded (also in their variable font file). Each symbol is available in 3 sizes. These symbols change their thickness and negative space according to chosen weight, they even utilized with the Opentype Variation feature. Using th
SF Symbolsapp can access more features such as refined alignment, multicolor, and localization of symbols. The symbol properties are not unified across variants. Different Unicode arrangement for some symbols result in different symbols when switching between variants, and some symbols have noticeably fewer details in some variants.
version 16.0d18e1
These symbols are available for developers to use in their apps on Apple platforms only. Developers are allowed to customize it to desired styles and colors, but certain symbols may not be modified and may only be used to refer to its respective Apple services or devices as listed in the license description.
Usage
Since its introduction, San Francisco has gradually replaced most of Apple's other typefaces on their software and hardware products and for overall branding
[Apple (2015). "Visual Design - Apple TV Human Interface Guidelines - Apple Developer". Retrieved on 2015-10-04 from https://developer.apple.com/tvos/human-interface-guidelines/visual-design/.] and has replaced
Lucida Grande and
Helvetica Neue as the system typeface of
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
and
iOS since
OS X El Capitan
OS X El Capitan ( ) () is the twelfth major release of macOS (named OS X at the time of El Capitan's release), Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh. It focuses mainly on performance, stability, and security. Followin ...
and
iOS 9.
Apple uses it on its website and for its product
wordmarks, where it replaced
Myriad Pro. It is also used on
Magic Keyboard and on the keyboard of the 2015
MacBook and on the 2016
MacBook Pro, replacing
VAG Rounded.
It is also used as Apple's
corporate typeface.
Apple restricts the usage of the typeface by others. It is licensed to registered third-party developers only for the design and development of applications for Apple's platforms.
Only SF Pro, SF Compact, SF Mono, SF Arabic, and New York variants are available for download on Developer website and they are the only SF variants allowed to be used by developers.
The ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
'' described the font as having nothing to do with the city and just being "Helvetica on a low-carb diet".
See also
*
Cantarell
*
IBM Plex
*
Roboto
*
Noto
*
Segoe
*
Product Sans
Product Sans is a contemporary geometric sans-serif typeface created by Google for branding purposes. It replaced the old Google logo on September 1, 2015. As Google's branding was becoming more apparent on a multitude of kinds of devices, Goo ...
References
External links
San Franciscoon Apple's developer website
{{Monospaced fonts
Apple Inc. typefaces
Sans-serif typefaces
Monospaced typefaces
Typefaces with optical sizes
Computer-related introductions in 2014
Typefaces and fonts introduced in 2014
Cyrillic typefaces
Display typefaces
Greek typefaces
Latin-script typefaces