Apple is reported to be planning to use the new San Francisco system font designed for the Apple Watch to refresh the look of iOS 9 “Monarch” and OS X 10.11 “Gala.”
Mark Gurman for 9to5Mac:
“… according to sources with knowledge of the preparations. Current plans call for the Apple-designed San Francisco font to replace Helvetica Neue, which came to iOS 7 in 2013 and OS X Yosemite just last year, beginning with a June debut at WWDC…”
The more readable San Francisco font made its debut on the Apple Watch, released last month. Apple developed the font to be more legible on the Apple Watch’s smaller 38mm and 42mm screens. The Apple Watch Human Interface webpages for developers states the San Francisco font scales more dynamically to “maintain clarity and legibility” regardless of text size.
Apple has been the subject of criticism over the thin Helvetica Neue font used in iOS ever since iOS 7.
“According to the sources familiar with the decision to move to the San Francisco type face on iOS and OS X, Apple higher-ups also believe that the new look will serve to refresh its familiar operating systems, helping iOS and OS X to avoid becoming stale. However, some Apple engineers have told us that they are not fans of the new font, which may look particularly rough on non-Retina screens.”
A new system-wide font would require Apple to tweak all of its stock applications in iOS and OS X to fit the new font. Apple will also need to push third-party developers to redesign their apps to make use of the new font ahead of the public release of the operating systems.
While Apple is reportedly well into the process of redesigning its two operating systems to match the Apple Watch’s typography, Gurman’s sources do warn that Apple could delay or cancel its plans for the use of San Francisco.
Apple’s WWDC 2015 keynote is scheduled for Monday, June 8th, which is when Apple would announce any plans for the new font across their operating systems.
