7 ms·

Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

243 points by CharlesW 11mo ago

numbers 11mo ago
seems like a good step towards making a variable font that allows all forms of text b/c Apple already has SF (fka San Francisco) which has many variants.
- hu3 11mo ago
  yep. specially since Apple font license is quite restrictive: > 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, SF Hebrew and New York variants are available for download on Developer website and they are the only SF variants allowed to be used by developers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(sans-serif_typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(sans-serif_type...
- alberth 11mo ago
  If you like variable fonts, no font is better at giving fine tune control than Roboto Flex (also by Google). Has 12-axis of variables (whereas most only have 1 or 2) https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Flex/tester https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Flex/tester
xnx 11mo ago
I hadn't noticed they added more font variable controls to Google Fonts: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex/tester https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex/tester
- ericmcer 11mo ago
  Oh man, I already spend way too much time stressing about size & weight. This is enough toggles to let you really spend hours trying to get it perfect!
  - lucb1e 11mo ago
    Thin weights are eyecandy, but don't forget to also decontrast the color! Nothing screams "made by a designer" like thin grey prose that, if you're lucky and they hired a professional, sits precisely at the minimum of the WCAG contrast legibility standard
    - xigoi 11mo ago
      You need to make sure people can’t read the actual content so that they’ll focus on the ads.
- Gualdrapo 11mo ago
  And it's quite cool (and uncommon, in my experience with variable fonts) they're adding a control for roundness
alterom 11mo ago
That's the kind of Flex I'm happy to see from corporations like Google.
tigranbs 11mo ago
Ahh, this is great! Finally, I can use the `font-stretch` CSS property to make some text components more expressive.
lucb1e 11mo ago
Where possible, I've stopped picking fonts that don't distinguish lowercase l and uppercase I. Words virtually always have redundancy (or context in the sentence) and it's fine in 98% of cases, but too often someone sends a token, password, name, or other string where you need to copy it out to another application to see it and just... why? Why bother? I/O test for Sans Flex: https://snipboard.io/wXCQq5.jpg https://snipboard.io/wXCQq5.jpg It passes the O0 distinction but not the Il one Example of a font that passes, Ubuntu: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Ubuntu?preview.text=10%20I%252FO%20tasks%20languish https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Ubuntu?preview.text=10%20I... (custom license but looks similar to GPL in that you can do what you want besides relicensing it as proprietary or removing credits) Another one, Nunito Sans, using the Open Font License: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Nunito+Sans?preview.text=10%20I%252FO%20tasks%20languish https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Nunito+Sans?preview.text=1... IBM Plex Sans is another Open Font License option: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/IBM+Plex+Sans?preview.text=10%20I%252FO%20tasks%20languish https://fonts.google.com/specimen/IBM+Plex+Sans?preview.text... (it has an unusual capital Q style though)
- munchler 11mo ago
  That’s a lowercase “L” vs. uppercase “I” for those of you as confused as I was.
  - quantummagic 11mo ago
    He inspired me to uninstall Bitstream-Vera-Sans fonts from my system so that his post was no longer a prime example of the problem.
  - tln 11mo ago
    Thanks, the "1" does look different. The font does have font-variant-numeric: slashed-zero
  - cloudflare728 11mo ago
    Why would someone spend years developing a front where you can't tell the difference between Il or 0O? Doesn't it hurt their ego at personal level?
elevaet 11mo ago
Are there any great variable and open serif web fonts around?
- 16bitvoid 11mo ago
  I don't really like serif fonts, but the two that immediately come to mind are Noto Serif and IBM Plex Serif. Both are open source. I know Noto Serif is variable, but not sure about IBM Plex.
  - levocardia 11mo ago
    Both Plex variants are really wonderful fonts
- jszymborski 11mo ago
  Inter is pretty great.
- CharlesW 11mo ago
  Lots! Start with the Google Fonts browser. This link should take you directly to a variable + serif list, and from there you can drill down into sub-styles, focus more on those with more axis, more styles, etc.: https://fonts.google.com/?categoryFilters=Technology:%2FTechnology%2FVariable;Serif:%2FSerif%2F*,%2FSlab%2F* https://fonts.google.com/?categoryFilters=Technology:%2FTech...
- vincent-manis 11mo ago
  I am very fond of Merriweather (which I recently saw on a list of over-used fonts, for those who believe that you should use a different obscure and, hopefully, hard to read font in every document). It pairs nicely with Merriweather Sans, Cascadia Code, and for math Libertinus Modern, though I do have to tweak ex-heights to match.
copperx 11mo ago
Great, but is it free of DEI? can it be used in official documents?
- Svoka 11mo ago
  It seems it is actively anti-DEI: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex?preview.text=iIlL0Oo https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex?preview.t...
- jrpelkonen 11mo ago
  The round variant looks like a fatty lacking warrior ethos. Unsuitable for Department of War. /s
  - EdwardDiego 11mo ago
    From now on, we're running the Army like a frat party. No fat chicks! No fuggos! And if you're a fat dude, you better be damn funny! -- Secretary of War ~~Pete Hegseth~~ Colin Jost.
- hbn 11mo ago
  I assume this is a shot at the White House but announcing an "anti-racist font" is totally up Google's alley I know I've seen Mozilla proudly pat themselves on the back in their announcement of anti-racist Firefox themes
  - Rebelgecko 11mo ago
    Google has been "anti-woke" since January or so. See the shutdown of groups for disabled employee, Dept of War "Manifest Destiny" contract, etc
Svoka 11mo ago
I am a simple person. Not a designer. But for all fonts I type 'iIlL0Oo' and if I can't tell what is what I skip it. This font fails hard.
- eahm 11mo ago
  1 too: https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo IMO Ubuntu Mono and Ubuntu Sans Mono are two of the best fonts ever made, comparable to Consolas, which I think it's still the best monospace font... talking about monospace fonts. Funny enough I think Reddit Mono is a very good monospace font too https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Reddit+Mono?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Reddit+Mono?preview.text=i... And Hack: https://dafont.com/hack.font?text=i1IlL0Oo https://dafont.com/hack.font?text=i1IlL0Oo For monospace fonts only: https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo&categoryFilters=Appearance:%2FMonospace%2FMonospace https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo&categoryFilt... https://dafont.com/theme.php?cat=503&text=i1IlL0Oo https://dafont.com/theme.php?cat=503&text=i1IlL0Oo
mosura 11mo ago
Now we all have high density screens serifs are going to make a comeback, if for no other reason than that new sans-serif fonts have developed this distinctly childish aura. This is not in the same league as Frutiger or Univers.
hbn 11mo ago
Maybe a good excuse to get back into playing around with Coldtype again https://coldtype.goodhertz.com/introduction.html https://coldtype.goodhertz.com/introduction.html
torbengee 11mo ago
I've tried so many fonts in my coding life, but I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono. Crisp, all characters distinguishable, slightly larger lowercase for better reading ... I recently compared it once more to others – https://www.programmingfonts.org/ https://www.programmingfonts.org/ makes it easy to narrow down to your favourites one by one ... JetBrains Mono still wins. :)
- amelius 11mo ago
  My favorite coding font: Iosevka Term. https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka It takes a day or so to get used to the condensed form factor, but after that you can enjoy much more horizontal space in your terminal windows. There is one downside: all the other fonts will look bulky :)
  - pdimitar 11mo ago
    I like that family of fonts but ultimately couldn't live with how tall they are. I want to have 50-60 lines of code on my screen. With it I had 35-40.
    - amelius 11mo ago
      From another point of view, the font is just as tall as other fonts, just less wide. So I suspect you are (maybe unconsciously) making an unfair comparison by scaling one font more than the other. You can see an apples-to-apples comparison here: https://www.programmingfonts.org/#iosevka https://www.programmingfonts.org/#iosevka (and then put and hold your finger on the last line of text and select another font)
      - pdimitar 11mo ago
        Yes, you are correct. When I shrunk it to have the same amount of lines as Ubuntu Mono, it was uncomfortably small. But you are inspiring me to give it another go. Thanks. They are beautiful fonts and are often updated, too. Clearly a lot care goes into their crafting.
freedomben 11mo ago
I don't love this new font as others have already pointed out, there's not enough distinction between some letters[1]. However, the general movement toward redistributable and license-friendly fonts is wonderful and I'm very happy to see it continue. As someone who has had to deal with font licensing hell in the past, having these available is a huge improvement. Even just setting up my personal linux systems and having actually usable fonts available is a massive improvement, before even getting into trying to build apps/websites/etc. Many thanks to Google and any others who are releasing these! [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247559 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247693 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247693
- adrian_b 11mo ago
  I agree with you, but this font is less notable for its glyph design than for the fact that you can obtain many variations of it by choosing suitable parameter values (hence the "Flex" name). This is a feature that few, if any, open source typefaces possess. Being open source, the same techniques can be reused in the design of another parametrized font, with less ambiguous glyphs.
hathawsh 11mo ago
> as well as an axis for rounded terminals (as in terminals in letters, not command-line apps). Now I want to see a rounded terminal (as in command-line apps, not terminals in letters.) Would I type in a circle? Sounds cool.
- kridsdale1 11mo ago
  The earliest CRT terminals were round.
- wasting_time 11mo ago
  Perhaps they are trying to improve the Gemini performance on https://clocks.brianmoore.com/ https://clocks.brianmoore.com/ .
- adrian_b 11mo ago
  Letters with rounded terminals are especially popular for public signage in a few Asian countries, e.g. Japan and Korea. That is why Microsoft Windows has included such a rounded font for the Korean script: Gulim. On Windows, if you want to render a text with Latin letters with rounded ends, you can use Gulim for the normal text, coupled with Arial Round for the bold text. On MacOS, there was a Hiragino Maru Gothic rounded font for Japanese (where also the Latin letters are rounded). I no longer use Apple computers, so I do not know whether the Hiragino fonts have remained the fonts provided for Japanese.
tasuki 11mo ago
Not particularly imaginative/interesting? I don't see how it's better than say Roboto. And I'm not even that huge a fan of Roboto...
tolerance 11mo ago
I understand that there are many good reasons not to want to use fonts where the lowercase L and uppercase I are indistinguishable. But am I the only one who actually prefers both to be relatively identical? Or at least the lowercase L must not have any quiggles or crooks? I like em both north-south. 12:30. I think typically the I will be a little thicker than the i for regular (text? roman?) weights and below.
aucisson_masque 11mo ago
Does it matter ? No really, I'm not trying to be edgy. Does the font we're using to read a document matters?? Last time I checked, scientist agreed that the best for an average user is the font you're used to. Serif, sans serif,.. didn't matter. Just keep using the one you always used. So I don't get why every so often, Google work on a new font. Pick one and stick to it, user don't care. Or am I missing something ? BTW, personnel opinion but the only fonts i found to really look better than anything else were apple fonts. They don't make things easier to read but they just look so nice whereas Google always feel meh.
- tomcatfish 11mo ago
  Yes, it matters, and big companies can do fantastic things by designing extremely expansive fonts which make it easy to include users speaking plenty of languages that we developers don't even know about.
- lucb1e 11mo ago
  It makes a big difference for legibility which font you pick. But I see what you mean in that, if the font is "just fine" (not trying to be fancy or, say, in futuristic style for a game or something), then why bother making yet another "just fine" font as Google has done here? There's already so many sans-serif fonts that no person could tell apart if they don't see them directly side-by-side and are asked to spot the difference. For this reason, I also wonder why this release matters at all
- EdwardDiego 11mo ago
  According to Secretary of State, fonts can be woke now, so I guess?
  - avree 11mo ago
    Don't think he ever described it as "woke". https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/full_text_of_marco_rubio_state_dept_directive_times_new_roman https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/full_text_of_marco_rubio_...
crazygringo 11mo ago
I'm very confused. This is the font that matches the Google branding, and that they started using as a UX font in Gmail, Docs, etc. I hate it in UX because it's so "geometric" -- works well for a logo, but not body text, so it's just a bizarre choice for UX. Unlike Roboto which continues to be great for that. (Google Sans is fine as display text though -- headings, logo, etc.) But my understanding was that Google wanted to differentiate its first-party apps from other Android apps with a proprietary Google font. But now they're opening that font up for everyone to use, so Google's apps will no longer look uniquely Google-branded. I'm so confused what the heck is going on over there in Mountain View.
txtsd 11mo ago
Open source? Where's the repo for its source code?
microflash 11mo ago
There’s also Google Sans Code, the monospace companion of Google Sans family. https://github.com/googlefonts/googlesans-code https://github.com/googlefonts/googlesans-code
mrankin 10mo ago
It’s time we all decided to code using the shavian alphabet. That will put all of these font issues to rest for sure. ;)

243 points by CharlesW 11mo ago

seems like a good step towards making a variable font that allows all forms of text b/c Apple already has SF (fka San Francisco) which has many variants.

hu3 11mo ago
yep. specially since Apple font license is quite restrictive: > 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, SF Hebrew and New York variants are available for download on Developer website and they are the only SF variants allowed to be used by developers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(sans-serif_typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(sans-serif_type...
alberth 11mo ago
If you like variable fonts, no font is better at giving fine tune control than Roboto Flex (also by Google). Has 12-axis of variables (whereas most only have 1 or 2) https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Flex/tester https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Flex/tester

xnx 11mo ago

I hadn't noticed they added more font variable controls to Google Fonts: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex/tester https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex/tester

ericmcer 11mo ago
Oh man, I already spend way too much time stressing about size & weight. This is enough toggles to let you really spend hours trying to get it perfect!
- lucb1e 11mo ago
  Thin weights are eyecandy, but don't forget to also decontrast the color! Nothing screams "made by a designer" like thin grey prose that, if you're lucky and they hired a professional, sits precisely at the minimum of the WCAG contrast legibility standard
  - xigoi 11mo ago
    You need to make sure people can’t read the actual content so that they’ll focus on the ads.
Gualdrapo 11mo ago
And it's quite cool (and uncommon, in my experience with variable fonts) they're adding a control for roundness

alterom 11mo ago

That's the kind of Flex I'm happy to see from corporations like Google.

tigranbs 11mo ago

Ahh, this is great! Finally, I can use the `font-stretch` CSS property to make some text components more expressive.

lucb1e 11mo ago

Where possible, I've stopped picking fonts that don't distinguish lowercase l and uppercase I. Words virtually always have redundancy (or context in the sentence) and it's fine in 98% of cases, but too often someone sends a token, password, name, or other string where you need to copy it out to another application to see it and just... why? Why bother? I/O test for Sans Flex: https://snipboard.io/wXCQq5.jpg https://snipboard.io/wXCQq5.jpg It passes the O0 distinction but not the Il one Example of a font that passes, Ubuntu: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Ubuntu?preview.text=10%20I%252FO%20tasks%20languish https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Ubuntu?preview.text=10%20I... (custom license but looks similar to GPL in that you can do what you want besides relicensing it as proprietary or removing credits) Another one, Nunito Sans, using the Open Font License: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Nunito+Sans?preview.text=10%20I%252FO%20tasks%20languish https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Nunito+Sans?preview.text=1... IBM Plex Sans is another Open Font License option: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/IBM+Plex+Sans?preview.text=10%20I%252FO%20tasks%20languish https://fonts.google.com/specimen/IBM+Plex+Sans?preview.text... (it has an unusual capital Q style though)

munchler 11mo ago
That’s a lowercase “L” vs. uppercase “I” for those of you as confused as I was.
- quantummagic 11mo ago
  He inspired me to uninstall Bitstream-Vera-Sans fonts from my system so that his post was no longer a prime example of the problem.
- tln 11mo ago
  Thanks, the "1" does look different. The font does have font-variant-numeric: slashed-zero
- cloudflare728 11mo ago
  Why would someone spend years developing a front where you can't tell the difference between Il or 0O? Doesn't it hurt their ego at personal level?

elevaet 11mo ago

Are there any great variable and open serif web fonts around?

16bitvoid 11mo ago
I don't really like serif fonts, but the two that immediately come to mind are Noto Serif and IBM Plex Serif. Both are open source. I know Noto Serif is variable, but not sure about IBM Plex.
- levocardia 11mo ago
  Both Plex variants are really wonderful fonts
jszymborski 11mo ago
Inter is pretty great.
CharlesW 11mo ago
Lots! Start with the Google Fonts browser. This link should take you directly to a variable + serif list, and from there you can drill down into sub-styles, focus more on those with more axis, more styles, etc.: https://fonts.google.com/?categoryFilters=Technology:%2FTechnology%2FVariable;Serif:%2FSerif%2F*,%2FSlab%2F* https://fonts.google.com/?categoryFilters=Technology:%2FTech...
vincent-manis 11mo ago
I am very fond of Merriweather (which I recently saw on a list of over-used fonts, for those who believe that you should use a different obscure and, hopefully, hard to read font in every document). It pairs nicely with Merriweather Sans, Cascadia Code, and for math Libertinus Modern, though I do have to tweak ex-heights to match.

copperx 11mo ago

Great, but is it free of DEI? can it be used in official documents?

Svoka 11mo ago
It seems it is actively anti-DEI: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex?preview.text=iIlL0Oo https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex?preview.t...
jrpelkonen 11mo ago
The round variant looks like a fatty lacking warrior ethos. Unsuitable for Department of War. /s
- EdwardDiego 11mo ago
  From now on, we're running the Army like a frat party. No fat chicks! No fuggos! And if you're a fat dude, you better be damn funny! -- Secretary of War ~~Pete Hegseth~~ Colin Jost.
hbn 11mo ago
I assume this is a shot at the White House but announcing an "anti-racist font" is totally up Google's alley I know I've seen Mozilla proudly pat themselves on the back in their announcement of anti-racist Firefox themes
- Rebelgecko 11mo ago
  Google has been "anti-woke" since January or so. See the shutdown of groups for disabled employee, Dept of War "Manifest Destiny" contract, etc

Svoka 11mo ago

I am a simple person. Not a designer. But for all fonts I type 'iIlL0Oo' and if I can't tell what is what I skip it. This font fails hard.

eahm 11mo ago
1 too: https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo IMO Ubuntu Mono and Ubuntu Sans Mono are two of the best fonts ever made, comparable to Consolas, which I think it's still the best monospace font... talking about monospace fonts. Funny enough I think Reddit Mono is a very good monospace font too https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Reddit+Mono?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Reddit+Mono?preview.text=i... And Hack: https://dafont.com/hack.font?text=i1IlL0Oo https://dafont.com/hack.font?text=i1IlL0Oo For monospace fonts only: https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo&categoryFilters=Appearance:%2FMonospace%2FMonospace https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=i1IlL0Oo&categoryFilt... https://dafont.com/theme.php?cat=503&text=i1IlL0Oo https://dafont.com/theme.php?cat=503&text=i1IlL0Oo

mosura 11mo ago

Now we all have high density screens serifs are going to make a comeback, if for no other reason than that new sans-serif fonts have developed this distinctly childish aura. This is not in the same league as Frutiger or Univers.

hbn 11mo ago

Maybe a good excuse to get back into playing around with Coldtype again https://coldtype.goodhertz.com/introduction.html https://coldtype.goodhertz.com/introduction.html

torbengee 11mo ago

I've tried so many fonts in my coding life, but I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono. Crisp, all characters distinguishable, slightly larger lowercase for better reading ... I recently compared it once more to others – https://www.programmingfonts.org/ https://www.programmingfonts.org/ makes it easy to narrow down to your favourites one by one ... JetBrains Mono still wins. :)

amelius 11mo ago
My favorite coding font: Iosevka Term. https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka It takes a day or so to get used to the condensed form factor, but after that you can enjoy much more horizontal space in your terminal windows. There is one downside: all the other fonts will look bulky :)
- pdimitar 11mo ago
  I like that family of fonts but ultimately couldn't live with how tall they are. I want to have 50-60 lines of code on my screen. With it I had 35-40.
  - amelius 11mo ago
    From another point of view, the font is just as tall as other fonts, just less wide. So I suspect you are (maybe unconsciously) making an unfair comparison by scaling one font more than the other. You can see an apples-to-apples comparison here: https://www.programmingfonts.org/#iosevka https://www.programmingfonts.org/#iosevka (and then put and hold your finger on the last line of text and select another font)
    - pdimitar 11mo ago
      Yes, you are correct. When I shrunk it to have the same amount of lines as Ubuntu Mono, it was uncomfortably small. But you are inspiring me to give it another go. Thanks. They are beautiful fonts and are often updated, too. Clearly a lot care goes into their crafting.

freedomben 11mo ago

I don't love this new font as others have already pointed out, there's not enough distinction between some letters[1]. However, the general movement toward redistributable and license-friendly fonts is wonderful and I'm very happy to see it continue. As someone who has had to deal with font licensing hell in the past, having these available is a huge improvement. Even just setting up my personal linux systems and having actually usable fonts available is a massive improvement, before even getting into trying to build apps/websites/etc. Many thanks to Google and any others who are releasing these! [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247559 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247559 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247693 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247693

adrian_b 11mo ago
I agree with you, but this font is less notable for its glyph design than for the fact that you can obtain many variations of it by choosing suitable parameter values (hence the "Flex" name). This is a feature that few, if any, open source typefaces possess. Being open source, the same techniques can be reused in the design of another parametrized font, with less ambiguous glyphs.

hathawsh 11mo ago

> as well as an axis for rounded terminals (as in terminals in letters, not command-line apps). Now I want to see a rounded terminal (as in command-line apps, not terminals in letters.) Would I type in a circle? Sounds cool.

kridsdale1 11mo ago
The earliest CRT terminals were round.
wasting_time 11mo ago
Perhaps they are trying to improve the Gemini performance on https://clocks.brianmoore.com/ https://clocks.brianmoore.com/ .
adrian_b 11mo ago
Letters with rounded terminals are especially popular for public signage in a few Asian countries, e.g. Japan and Korea. That is why Microsoft Windows has included such a rounded font for the Korean script: Gulim. On Windows, if you want to render a text with Latin letters with rounded ends, you can use Gulim for the normal text, coupled with Arial Round for the bold text. On MacOS, there was a Hiragino Maru Gothic rounded font for Japanese (where also the Latin letters are rounded). I no longer use Apple computers, so I do not know whether the Hiragino fonts have remained the fonts provided for Japanese.

tasuki 11mo ago

Not particularly imaginative/interesting? I don't see how it's better than say Roboto. And I'm not even that huge a fan of Roboto...

tolerance 11mo ago

I understand that there are many good reasons not to want to use fonts where the lowercase L and uppercase I are indistinguishable. But am I the only one who actually prefers both to be relatively identical? Or at least the lowercase L must not have any quiggles or crooks? I like em both north-south. 12:30. I think typically the I will be a little thicker than the i for regular (text? roman?) weights and below.

aucisson_masque 11mo ago

Does it matter ? No really, I'm not trying to be edgy. Does the font we're using to read a document matters?? Last time I checked, scientist agreed that the best for an average user is the font you're used to. Serif, sans serif,.. didn't matter. Just keep using the one you always used. So I don't get why every so often, Google work on a new font. Pick one and stick to it, user don't care. Or am I missing something ? BTW, personnel opinion but the only fonts i found to really look better than anything else were apple fonts. They don't make things easier to read but they just look so nice whereas Google always feel meh.

tomcatfish 11mo ago
Yes, it matters, and big companies can do fantastic things by designing extremely expansive fonts which make it easy to include users speaking plenty of languages that we developers don't even know about.
lucb1e 11mo ago
It makes a big difference for legibility which font you pick. But I see what you mean in that, if the font is "just fine" (not trying to be fancy or, say, in futuristic style for a game or something), then why bother making yet another "just fine" font as Google has done here? There's already so many sans-serif fonts that no person could tell apart if they don't see them directly side-by-side and are asked to spot the difference. For this reason, I also wonder why this release matters at all
EdwardDiego 11mo ago
According to Secretary of State, fonts can be woke now, so I guess?
- avree 11mo ago
  Don't think he ever described it as "woke". https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/full_text_of_marco_rubio_state_dept_directive_times_new_roman https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/full_text_of_marco_rubio_...

crazygringo 11mo ago

I'm very confused. This is the font that matches the Google branding, and that they started using as a UX font in Gmail, Docs, etc. I hate it in UX because it's so "geometric" -- works well for a logo, but not body text, so it's just a bizarre choice for UX. Unlike Roboto which continues to be great for that. (Google Sans is fine as display text though -- headings, logo, etc.) But my understanding was that Google wanted to differentiate its first-party apps from other Android apps with a proprietary Google font. But now they're opening that font up for everyone to use, so Google's apps will no longer look uniquely Google-branded. I'm so confused what the heck is going on over there in Mountain View.

txtsd 11mo ago

Open source? Where's the repo for its source code?

microflash 11mo ago

There’s also Google Sans Code, the monospace companion of Google Sans family. https://github.com/googlefonts/googlesans-code https://github.com/googlefonts/googlesans-code

mrankin 10mo ago

It’s time we all decided to code using the shavian alphabet. That will put all of these font issues to rest for sure. ;)