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Also worth take a look at the Roboto specimen booklet which presents the font in a better light than the Google Fonts website (PDF): http://material-design.stor

Also worth take a look at the Roboto specimen booklet which presents the font in a better light than the Google Fonts website (PDF): http://material-design.storage.googleapis.com/publish/material_v_3/material_ext_publish/0B0J8hsRkk91LNGdYTEF0VnVPT0k/RobotoSpecimenBooklet.pdf http://material-design.storage.googleapis.com/publish/materi...

sitkack 11y ago
Neither the announcement or the git repo even have an example of what the font looks like. It is like announcing a new copy of the Mona Lisa not having a picture of it.
- jeffmcjunkin 11y ago
  Agreed, that was bothersome. Here's the font: https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto
  - weavie 11y ago
    Wow, look at the stats on that font - https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto#stats https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto#stats - 9,979,683,779 is a lot of views in one week.
- psychometry 11y ago
  Nor did they have a link to simply download the font files. You can do that here: https://www.google.com/fonts#UsePlace:use/Collection:Roboto https://www.google.com/fonts#UsePlace:use/Collection:Roboto
  - gillianseed 11y ago
    They linked to the github repo linked in the first line of the announcement, you'll find the font files (ttf) in the 'hinted' directory. https://github.com/google/roboto https://github.com/google/roboto
    - afro88 11y ago
      As someone who doesn't know a whole lot about fonts, but who is interested in a decent font being made open source, I would never think to look in the "hinted" directory. Out of interest, why is it called "hinted" and not "example" or something? I'm guessing it's font lingo?
      - woodman 11y ago
        As someone who has ADD: yes, font lingo. It has to do with render alignment and the fact that pixels aren't round. It is amazing the level of complexity underlying font rendering, look at the internals for lcd filter weights some time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_hinting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_hinting
      - gillianseed 11y ago
        Yes it's font lingo for sure :) Basically for fonts to look good when placed on a square grid (pixels) there is a method called hinting which as the name implies gives hints to the font renderer on how the fonts should be drawn across this grid in order to best preserve the intended look of the font and be readable, this has the greatest impact when you are using a very limited size grid such as in small font sizes.
vanderZwan 11y ago
They say they keep updating it, which kind of makes me wonder what the best way is to keep up to date with the newest versions. Is there an automated way to do that? I don't like to manually check every other month if a font has a new version, and cloning the repo seems overkill if all I want is the output.
- sp332 11y ago
  Oh wow, they got rid of the Helvetica-style R entirely. Good riddance, that's my least favorite thing about Helvetica.
  - thrillgore 11y ago
    I really appreciated they decided to blow away all the Helvetica characteristics and go straight for an inspired variation of Akzidenz-Grotesk. It looks great on print!
    - Steko 11y ago
      It's really come a long way since launch. http://typographica.org/on-typography/roboto-typeface-is-a-four-headed-frankenstein/ http://typographica.org/on-typography/roboto-typeface-is-a-f... Kudos to Stephen Coles for keeping that article updated as the font has evolved and improved.
      - duncanawoods 11y ago
        The K's with the flat middle were horrible. Interesting that they were the only characters poached from Ronnia and now replaced with something more familar.
- tjohns 11y ago
  You can use Monotype Skyfonts, which has a free service for downloading and syncing the Google Fonts collection: http://www.fonts.com/web-fonts/google http://www.fonts.com/web-fonts/google
kstenerud 11y ago
Is the lighter or the darker blue outline the new one? I'm still at a loss to say which one looks better or why.
- zerocrates 11y ago
  The darker blue outline (with the straight leg on the "R") is the newer one.
- aembleton 11y ago
  Dark blue is the new one.
lucio 11y ago
The second page spelling OCD... it is a freudian slip or it is an innocent confession?
bobbles 11y ago
If anyone here is from the google fonts website, theres a typo in this document: "Bold 8.5/12pt Roboto supports 16 weights as well as advanced typographic features such as smallc aps"

sitkack 11y ago

Neither the announcement or the git repo even have an example of what the font looks like. It is like announcing a new copy of the Mona Lisa not having a picture of it.

jeffmcjunkin 11y ago
Agreed, that was bothersome. Here's the font: https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto
- weavie 11y ago
  Wow, look at the stats on that font - https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto#stats https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Roboto#stats - 9,979,683,779 is a lot of views in one week.
psychometry 11y ago
Nor did they have a link to simply download the font files. You can do that here: https://www.google.com/fonts#UsePlace:use/Collection:Roboto https://www.google.com/fonts#UsePlace:use/Collection:Roboto
- gillianseed 11y ago
  They linked to the github repo linked in the first line of the announcement, you'll find the font files (ttf) in the 'hinted' directory. https://github.com/google/roboto https://github.com/google/roboto
  - afro88 11y ago
    As someone who doesn't know a whole lot about fonts, but who is interested in a decent font being made open source, I would never think to look in the "hinted" directory. Out of interest, why is it called "hinted" and not "example" or something? I'm guessing it's font lingo?
    - woodman 11y ago
      As someone who has ADD: yes, font lingo. It has to do with render alignment and the fact that pixels aren't round. It is amazing the level of complexity underlying font rendering, look at the internals for lcd filter weights some time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_hinting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_hinting
    - gillianseed 11y ago
      Yes it's font lingo for sure :) Basically for fonts to look good when placed on a square grid (pixels) there is a method called hinting which as the name implies gives hints to the font renderer on how the fonts should be drawn across this grid in order to best preserve the intended look of the font and be readable, this has the greatest impact when you are using a very limited size grid such as in small font sizes.

vanderZwan 11y ago

They say they keep updating it, which kind of makes me wonder what the best way is to keep up to date with the newest versions. Is there an automated way to do that? I don't like to manually check every other month if a font has a new version, and cloning the repo seems overkill if all I want is the output.

sp332 11y ago
Oh wow, they got rid of the Helvetica-style R entirely. Good riddance, that's my least favorite thing about Helvetica.
- thrillgore 11y ago
  I really appreciated they decided to blow away all the Helvetica characteristics and go straight for an inspired variation of Akzidenz-Grotesk. It looks great on print!
  - Steko 11y ago
    It's really come a long way since launch. http://typographica.org/on-typography/roboto-typeface-is-a-four-headed-frankenstein/ http://typographica.org/on-typography/roboto-typeface-is-a-f... Kudos to Stephen Coles for keeping that article updated as the font has evolved and improved.
    - duncanawoods 11y ago
      The K's with the flat middle were horrible. Interesting that they were the only characters poached from Ronnia and now replaced with something more familar.
tjohns 11y ago
You can use Monotype Skyfonts, which has a free service for downloading and syncing the Google Fonts collection: http://www.fonts.com/web-fonts/google http://www.fonts.com/web-fonts/google

kstenerud 11y ago

Is the lighter or the darker blue outline the new one? I'm still at a loss to say which one looks better or why.

zerocrates 11y ago
The darker blue outline (with the straight leg on the "R") is the newer one.
aembleton 11y ago
Dark blue is the new one.

lucio 11y ago

The second page spelling OCD... it is a freudian slip or it is an innocent confession?

bobbles 11y ago

If anyone here is from the google fonts website, theres a typo in this document: "Bold 8.5/12pt Roboto supports 16 weights as well as advanced typographic features such as smallc aps"