San Francisco. Does it look like anything other than nearby Apple Park? He is the font used by Apple in all operating systems for a few years now. Before that, we had been through Helvetica and a few others, and some of the company’s focus on typefaces came from Steve Jobs during his college days.
We know that the co-founder of Apple he had a rather eclectic upbringing. One, yes, which prepared him to lead what is today one of the largest companies in the world and which gave him the tools to make the most appropriate decisions. One of them, recognized by Steve Jobs himself, is in his calligraphy lessons.
The science behind the little details that make the difference
Using one font or another communicates a lot beyond simple text in any system or product. From the Motter Tektura of one of the first Apple Computer logos, to the Gill Sans or Myriad Pro of the word “iPod”, to the Apple Garamond of “Think Different”, Apple has used many fonts throughout its history. .
Chicago and Charcoal fonts in Mac OS 8
In operating systems, we can talk about the Chicago or Charcoal font, which appeared around Mac OS 8. We then moved on to Geneva, Shaston and Espy Jans before stopping at Lucida Grande, Podium Sans, Helvetica and , Finally, the San Francisco.
Apple Garamond Typography.
This last is exclusively designed by Apple and it has different variants for different uses. The three main variants are SF Pro for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS; SF Compact for watchOS; and SF Mono for Terminal, Console, and Xcode apps. A font that on June 8, 2015 at the WWDC 2015 conference replaced Helvetica Neue as the system font for operating systems.
and all that the attention to detail comes from the calligraphy classes Steve Jobs attended during his university education. Some classes that, according to Jobs himself, were decisive for future Apple products to pay attention to typography and fonts, as INC.com recalls.
Motter Tektura typeface.
The man who drove his Mercedes without a license plate and wanted to be an astronaut was clear that design is a language. A language equivalent to what non-verbal communication can be when we have a conversation. The choice of colors, textures and even the way a product is presented in its box communicates a great deal of information.
Choosing one typeface or another communicates a whole series of values and characteristics that, in products so eminently visual and in which we spend the day reading, become very relevant. From experience I will say that calligraphy lessons are not about good handwriting, they are about a small letter-shaped detail can go unnoticed and make a big difference at the same time. An approach that, surely, Steve Jobs knew how to apply to create the products that we continue to enjoy today.
