Why did Apple use the San Francisco font in iOS 9?

In the new product category of smartwatch Apple Watch, Apple designed a new font system for it: San Francisco. This font design looks more concise and clean, and its readability is very high even on a device as small as the Apple Watch screen.

According to Apple, in the large-size version, the spacing between each letter will be slightly compressed to make full use of the screen space. However, in the small-size version, the spacing between each letter will be enlarged, especially letters such as "a" or "e" will appear larger, so as to ensure that there will be no mistakes at first glance.

When the font size is adjusted, the Apple Watch will automatically adjust and deploy the font to maintain clarity and readability.

Last week, it was reported that the use of this new font will not be limited to Apple Watch. In this year's updated iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, Apple is very likely to use this self-designed San Francisco font to replace the current Helvetica Neue font. So why did Apple replace the previous font and fully use this new font? Let's see how the designer explains it. The designer uses his Type Detail project to analyze some of the characteristics of the San Francisco font one by one, so that you can discover the beauty of this font that you have always overlooked.

The most important point for the readability of a font is related to the X coordinate: the height of lowercase letters is 75% of that of uppercase letters, so that the lowercase letters in this font are larger than those in typical fonts. The designer believes that Apple's San Francisco font is similar to Open Sans and Arial.

- In the letter "M", the tops are parallel and the intersection of the two diagonal lines is above the bottom line.

- In the letter "a", the aperture is very flat and the double-layer structure is in the shape of a flat-top bowl

- In the letters "c r", the X coordinate height is very obvious, so it looks clear even if the font is small

- In the letter "O", the difference is small and the stress angle is vertical

- In the letter "h", the cross strokes are thinner

- In the letter "e", there is a large gap between the tail and the rest of the letter

The designer said that the Type Detail project exists entirely for fans who like typographic design, so you won’t see any obscure professional terms in his analysis, but these plain explanations are enough to let you understand why this font looks so clear on such a small screen of Apple Watch.

According to previously leaked information, in this year's iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, Apple will pay more attention to the "quality" update than the "quantity" update, and further optimize the stability of the new system. In addition to the possibility of using a new San Francisco font, iOS 9 will also integrate the smart home application Home, iPad split-screen function and Apple Maps updates.

The updates of OS X 10.11 include: further adjustments to the system interface, using the San Francisco font. In addition, the new system will also add a control center. Apple plans to adjust many controls in the Mac menu bar to the control center, add on-screen music playback controls and other iOS-inspired functions and features. However, it is reported that the development of OS X Control Center is unstable and may eventually be delayed.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.