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The Interface font family

rsms.me

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Re: The Interface font family

#21

Post by ahhhhhhhhhh »

wyager wrote: post #8

I'm sure this is like tabs vs spaces for typographists, but why the hell do people make and use sans-serif fonts? Even ignoring aesthetics, the fact that there are horrendous ambiguities (like between I and l) renders these fonts completely inappropriate for computational tasks like copying passwords or secret keys. I have run into this problem multiple times on OS X and iOS, where the password managers use sans seri…

>the fact that there are horrendous ambiguities (like between I and l) renders these fonts completely inappropriate for computational tasks like copying passwords or secret keys

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Re: The Interface font family

#22

Post by baldfat »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #16

Looking at Interface's glyph map, I see that letter-O (O) is slightly wider than number-zero (0). Capital-eye (I) is indistinguishable from small-ell (l), though number-one (1) is distinguishable from both. What other glyph ambiguities do you look out for on new fonts?

I really hate that O and 0 are so alike and right next to each other on QWERTY.

Wish a slash like in my coding fonts was the norm in USA.

Re: The Interface font family

#23

Post by [deleted] »

jack_jennings wrote: post #10

This is based on Roboto (reusing some outlines directly; not initially acknowledged by the designer on the marketing site), and arguably doesn't tread much new ground either in character or use-case or license. Not convinced there is anything this adds to an already crowded space.

[deleted]

Re: The Interface font family

#24

Post by nerdponx »

wyager wrote: post #8

I'm sure this is like tabs vs spaces for typographists, but why the hell do people make and use sans-serif fonts? Even ignoring aesthetics, the fact that there are horrendous ambiguities (like between I and l) renders these fonts completely inappropriate for computational tasks like copying passwords or secret keys. I have run into this problem multiple times on OS X and iOS, where the password managers use sans seri…

What? Would you rather HackerNews be rendered in a serif font?

Re: The Interface font family

#25

Post by rasmusfabbe »

jack_jennings wrote: post #10

This is based on Roboto (reusing some outlines directly; not initially acknowledged by the designer on the marketing site), and arguably doesn't tread much new ground either in character or use-case or license. Not convinced there is anything this adds to an already crowded space.

Hello Jack. I'm the creator of Interface. Indeed many glyphs's outlines comes from Roboto (though fitted into different glyph boxes.)

The "playground" feature of the website even has a feature for comparing Interface with Roboto. When you do, and you look at the details, you'll find that Interface is actually quite different from Roboto, at least as far as "different" goes with utilitarian UI fonts. https://rsms.me/interface/lab/?size=22&compare=roboto

Re: The Interface font family

#26

Post by wodenokoto »

jack_jennings wrote: post #20
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #16

Looking at Interface's glyph map, I see that letter-O (O) is slightly wider than number-zero (0). Capital-eye (I) is indistinguishable from small-ell (l), though number-one (1) is distinguishable from both. What other glyph ambiguities do you look out for on new fonts?

Slashed 0 and Ø in nordic countries. Though not abiguous in sharing the exact same shapes, many characters can share similar structures that (arguably; citation needed) can cause visual confusion. For example; 3 and 8 in a typeface like Helvetica are very similar. Opening the aperture of the 3 or using a form with a corner in the upper right can be observed in some UI typefaces. The "single story a" can be an issue i…

What is a tail-less t? Google didn't help me at all on this one.

Re: The Interface font family

#27

Post by rasmusfabbe »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #16

Looking at Interface's glyph map, I see that letter-O (O) is slightly wider than number-zero (0). Capital-eye (I) is indistinguishable from small-ell (l), though number-one (1) is distinguishable from both. What other glyph ambiguities do you look out for on new fonts?

This is by design. A wider "O" would indeed make separating zero from "O" easier (and an earlier iteration of Interface had a wider "O") but it adds some uneven pace to how longer words and sentences read.

The hope is to add a stylistic set for character disambiguation to the font, which when enabled would enable graphic features on glyphs like upper-case "i" and lower-case "l", zero and "O", and so on. Tracked here: https://github.com/rsms/interface/issues/1

Re: The Interface font family

#28

Post by tyrust »

baldfat wrote: post #22
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #16

Looking at Interface's glyph map, I see that letter-O (O) is slightly wider than number-zero (0). Capital-eye (I) is indistinguishable from small-ell (l), though number-one (1) is distinguishable from both. What other glyph ambiguities do you look out for on new fonts?

I really hate that O and 0 are so alike and right next to each other on QWERTY. Wish a slash like in my coding fonts was the norm in USA.

>I really hate that O and 0 are so alike and right next to each other on QWERTY.

Damn, I never noticed that. Now I hate the typeface on my keycaps.

Re: The Interface font family

#29

Post by rasmusfabbe »

fairpx wrote: post #17

Nice font. Would there be a way for you guys to incorporate the font on a platform like Google's webfonts? For our business ( http://fairpixels.pro ) we are constantly looking for great fonts to use in the UI work we do for software teams. Having a scattered landscape doesn't help.

Glad you like it. Once Interface reaches a more stable state (i.e. more glyphs and kerning have been added), the intention is to submit it for inclusion on Google fonts. In the meantime, you can use https://rsms.me/interface/interface.css which always points to the latest release of the font, and is hosted on a CDN (by Cloudflare, backed by GitHub.)

Re: The Interface font family

#30

Post by rasmusfabbe »

rcarmo wrote: post #2

I actually came across this yesterday and set it as a system font on my Linux machine, which runs Elementary. Although I don't have a HIDPI display, it is nicer and (subjectively) more readable than what I've tried before (I still use Fira Code for coding and Fira Mono inside the terminal, but for the UI tried various variations of Fira, Roboto and other sans serif fonts, yet none of them stuck).

Happy to hear this! Would love to see a screenshot of what it looks like (I'm @rsms on Twitter)
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