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Counterpoint it is a worse copy of Apples San Francisco. Made by very determined but not very experienced typographer. It started by taking Roboto and redrawing

Counterpoint it is a worse copy of Apples San Francisco. Made by very determined but not very experienced typographer. It started by taking Roboto and redrawing/morphing San Francisco over Roboto. This leads to lots of inconsistencies (something that got better over time especially with outside contributions) and it wont get you much respect with type community. Not to say its not better UI typeface than most (especially open source ones). Or that creating such typeface is not time consuming. I often use it too. I am just trying to point out that the why it works so well for UI should be attributed mostly to team behind San Francisco.

betteryet 3y ago
San Francisco is fantastic, but you can't use it outside of Apple platforms. Anything in this style better than Inter, even commercial? Graphik, Circular, Neue Haas Grotesk, Proxima Nova have been popular at various times, but are not as refined and versatile. Some brands have custom fonts that come close in my opinion, but they keep them to themselves.
- omnimus 3y ago
  Good workhorse grotesk is bread and butter of any commercial type foundry. I would say you will find many ones that are of higher quality than Inter. The question becomes more interesting when you want specifically typefaces for UIs. One of the main qualities of San Francisco imho is the versitality and amount of cuts/versions specifically with digital screens in mind. I think thats not very popular segment with type foundries. For example Klim type Untitled is in my eyes one of the best UI typefaces. But it doesnt have the breadth (i guess it wasnt that popular to dedicate the time). So you might have to pick their other typeface Sohne which is not made specifically for UIs (although it works just fine because Klimt is top of the top in the craft). There are things like FK Grotesk, Post Grotesk, Rooobert... there are many which work well and have the breath but are not specific to UIs either. This does not matter as much anymore because of hidipi screens though. And also its not like Inter has ever been specifically optimised/hinted to lowdpi screens (not unlike all the SF, Arials, Verdanas, Helveticas of the world). So Inter is not the best but its good enough and its free.

betteryet 3y ago

San Francisco is fantastic, but you can't use it outside of Apple platforms. Anything in this style better than Inter, even commercial? Graphik, Circular, Neue Haas Grotesk, Proxima Nova have been popular at various times, but are not as refined and versatile. Some brands have custom fonts that come close in my opinion, but they keep them to themselves.

omnimus 3y ago
Good workhorse grotesk is bread and butter of any commercial type foundry. I would say you will find many ones that are of higher quality than Inter. The question becomes more interesting when you want specifically typefaces for UIs. One of the main qualities of San Francisco imho is the versitality and amount of cuts/versions specifically with digital screens in mind. I think thats not very popular segment with type foundries. For example Klim type Untitled is in my eyes one of the best UI typefaces. But it doesnt have the breadth (i guess it wasnt that popular to dedicate the time). So you might have to pick their other typeface Sohne which is not made specifically for UIs (although it works just fine because Klimt is top of the top in the craft). There are things like FK Grotesk, Post Grotesk, Rooobert... there are many which work well and have the breath but are not specific to UIs either. This does not matter as much anymore because of hidipi screens though. And also its not like Inter has ever been specifically optimised/hinted to lowdpi screens (not unlike all the SF, Arials, Verdanas, Helveticas of the world). So Inter is not the best but its good enough and its free.