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As a UI font, this is pretty great. Almost a mix between Circular and San Francisco, it should work well. However, most disappointing and worrying part of font

by flixic 9y ago

As a UI font, this is pretty great. Almost a mix between Circular and San Francisco, it should work well. However, most disappointing and worrying part of font presentation is applications to different movies and TV shows. With the same typeface, they completely lose their identity. Strong, condensed typeface of House of Cards. 80s-inspired typeface for Stranger Things. Minimal and geometric typeface for OA. Cyrillic alphabet inspired treatment of R in Icarus. They all were different and appropriate, and here they are all very 2010's generic sans-serif, losing all personality. I'm happy to see Netflix Sans in UI, but sure hope it doesn't go deeper, into actual show branding.

dmix 9y ago
Are they even responsible for creating those show branding/advertising graphics used in the examples? I thought that'd be the responsibility of the production companies as they submit content. Although maybe they want some consistency when it's within the Netflix app... But agreed, I hope it becomes their UI font and not used in everything out of laziness or some pursuit of functional standardization over emotional aesthetics.
- sefrost 9y ago
  I got the impression the article author had put those together.
  - flixic 9y ago
    Credit below these images goes to Netflix and Dalton Maag (one of the most famous typeface design studios, https://www.daltonmaag.com/ https://www.daltonmaag.com/)
  - harrisjt 9y ago
    Seems like an odd thing for them to do. For me it came off as netflix either changing the branding or wanting to show off the font in a creative way.
plehoux 9y ago
One thing that annoys me on Netflix... is the Netflix logo on show's thumbnail... I wouldn't mind a Netflix label in the UI, but watermarking every covers feels gross, it dilutes the personality of each show.
- sdrothrock 9y ago
  I actually appreciate the instantly visible branding; Netflix shows are among the few guaranteed to have proper subtitles.
  - crowbahr 9y ago
    That's about the only guarantee though. Some 'Netflix Originals' are purchased from other broadcasting companies, there's wildly inconsistent quality across then... I love Netflix and all but the little name in the corner doesn't mean much.
    - mulmen 9y ago
      Yes if the watermark was for original Netflix Originals I would appreciate the utility. Even Red vs. Blue is marked as a Netflix Original but I believe it predates even YouTube.
  - Daiz 9y ago
    I would disagree with that... Netflix's subs might be passable when they don't have to deal with translating on-screen text, but when that is the case (like with anime, which they've been investing a lot of money into) the presentation is just horrible. Just look at the video in this tweet: https://twitter.com/Daiz42/status/949379951194726401 https://twitter.com/Daiz42/status/949379951194726401 (also look for the video in the follow-up tweet demonstrating how much better it could be with just some simple changes)
    - opencl 9y ago
      The state of official anime subs is just bad everywhere. Crunchyroll's are not-infrequently total gibberish. Netflix's handling of signs is indeed awful but they do at least (usually) write decent translations. I won't say that fansubs are any better on average but the only actual well-done subs are all fansubs which is kind of sad.
amyjess 9y ago
> As a UI font, this is pretty great. I disagree. With high-resolution displays becoming the norm, I'm questioning why so much of the industry is still stuck on sans-serif fonts for UI, and worse, regressing from humanist sanses to neo-grotesk fonts, which are the worst (seriously, if you have to use a sans, use something like Myriad or Noto Sans... which Apple and Google used to use before they jumped on the neo-grotesk bandwagon). The only reason to not use a serif font is because at low resolutions, the serifs blur into a mess, but low resolutions aren't an issue anymore. And on top of that, hinting is a thing. Serif fonts have objectively better readability, and subjectively they're much prettier than anything else. I've been using Noto Serif as my main UI font on pretty much everything for a couple of years now, and it's absolutely perfect. I'll never go back to a sans for UI.
- Freak_NL 9y ago
  > With high-resolution displays becoming the norm It will be years before TVs as well as desktop monitors are HiDPI in overwhelming numbers. 720p/1080p is pretty much the norm for those now. These fonts are meant to be usable on the vast majority (> 95%) of customer's screens, not just the minority (majority soon) of HiDPI screens. > The only reason to not use a serif font is because at low resolutions, the serifs blur into a mess, […] Nonsense. It's also an aesthetic call. We are not just using sans-serif fonts because our screens can't do better; sometimes they just work on their own merits (whether that's legibility or appearance).
- PeCaN 9y ago
  >Serif fonts have objectively better readability This claim is often repeated but questionable at best. >subjectively they're much prettier than anything else They might be pretty to you (and this is such a subjective claim that using it as evidence for favoring serif fonts is pointless) but users are pretty used to sans UI fonts at this point, and there's 0 reason to alienate them with something "prettier".
- MrL567 9y ago
  Have to agree, it's bit disappointing the most common style of font used are the minimalist ones like Google's font or Facebook's. I mean for pixel blurring reasons it makes sense but if we have stronger computers, we can avoid that problem more often, no?
WorldMaker 9y ago
My assumption was that the design firm wanted to make sure the font held up well when used dynamically in complex media, using well known photography available to Netflix, not that they were proposing logo changes for those properties.
enra 9y ago
They seem to state in the article that they will use this in brand and identity but they don't mention use of this in the UI.

by flixic 9y ago

dmix 9y ago

Are they even responsible for creating those show branding/advertising graphics used in the examples? I thought that'd be the responsibility of the production companies as they submit content. Although maybe they want some consistency when it's within the Netflix app... But agreed, I hope it becomes their UI font and not used in everything out of laziness or some pursuit of functional standardization over emotional aesthetics.

sefrost 9y ago
I got the impression the article author had put those together.
- flixic 9y ago
  Credit below these images goes to Netflix and Dalton Maag (one of the most famous typeface design studios, https://www.daltonmaag.com/ https://www.daltonmaag.com/)
- harrisjt 9y ago
  Seems like an odd thing for them to do. For me it came off as netflix either changing the branding or wanting to show off the font in a creative way.

plehoux 9y ago

One thing that annoys me on Netflix... is the Netflix logo on show's thumbnail... I wouldn't mind a Netflix label in the UI, but watermarking every covers feels gross, it dilutes the personality of each show.

sdrothrock 9y ago
I actually appreciate the instantly visible branding; Netflix shows are among the few guaranteed to have proper subtitles.
- crowbahr 9y ago
  That's about the only guarantee though. Some 'Netflix Originals' are purchased from other broadcasting companies, there's wildly inconsistent quality across then... I love Netflix and all but the little name in the corner doesn't mean much.
  - mulmen 9y ago
    Yes if the watermark was for original Netflix Originals I would appreciate the utility. Even Red vs. Blue is marked as a Netflix Original but I believe it predates even YouTube.
- Daiz 9y ago
  I would disagree with that... Netflix's subs might be passable when they don't have to deal with translating on-screen text, but when that is the case (like with anime, which they've been investing a lot of money into) the presentation is just horrible. Just look at the video in this tweet: https://twitter.com/Daiz42/status/949379951194726401 https://twitter.com/Daiz42/status/949379951194726401 (also look for the video in the follow-up tweet demonstrating how much better it could be with just some simple changes)
  - opencl 9y ago
    The state of official anime subs is just bad everywhere. Crunchyroll's are not-infrequently total gibberish. Netflix's handling of signs is indeed awful but they do at least (usually) write decent translations. I won't say that fansubs are any better on average but the only actual well-done subs are all fansubs which is kind of sad.

amyjess 9y ago

> As a UI font, this is pretty great. I disagree. With high-resolution displays becoming the norm, I'm questioning why so much of the industry is still stuck on sans-serif fonts for UI, and worse, regressing from humanist sanses to neo-grotesk fonts, which are the worst (seriously, if you have to use a sans, use something like Myriad or Noto Sans... which Apple and Google used to use before they jumped on the neo-grotesk bandwagon). The only reason to not use a serif font is because at low resolutions, the serifs blur into a mess, but low resolutions aren't an issue anymore. And on top of that, hinting is a thing. Serif fonts have objectively better readability, and subjectively they're much prettier than anything else. I've been using Noto Serif as my main UI font on pretty much everything for a couple of years now, and it's absolutely perfect. I'll never go back to a sans for UI.

Freak_NL 9y ago
> With high-resolution displays becoming the norm It will be years before TVs as well as desktop monitors are HiDPI in overwhelming numbers. 720p/1080p is pretty much the norm for those now. These fonts are meant to be usable on the vast majority (> 95%) of customer's screens, not just the minority (majority soon) of HiDPI screens. > The only reason to not use a serif font is because at low resolutions, the serifs blur into a mess, […] Nonsense. It's also an aesthetic call. We are not just using sans-serif fonts because our screens can't do better; sometimes they just work on their own merits (whether that's legibility or appearance).
PeCaN 9y ago
>Serif fonts have objectively better readability This claim is often repeated but questionable at best. >subjectively they're much prettier than anything else They might be pretty to you (and this is such a subjective claim that using it as evidence for favoring serif fonts is pointless) but users are pretty used to sans UI fonts at this point, and there's 0 reason to alienate them with something "prettier".
MrL567 9y ago
Have to agree, it's bit disappointing the most common style of font used are the minimalist ones like Google's font or Facebook's. I mean for pixel blurring reasons it makes sense but if we have stronger computers, we can avoid that problem more often, no?

WorldMaker 9y ago

My assumption was that the design firm wanted to make sure the font held up well when used dynamically in complex media, using well known photography available to Netflix, not that they were proposing logo changes for those properties.

enra 9y ago

They seem to state in the article that they will use this in brand and identity but they don't mention use of this in the UI.