IBM Plex – A new typeface • Hacker News Board

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#51

Post by epc » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:17 PM UTC

krona wrote: post #30

seibelj wrote: post #18

From my experience dealing with IBM, I can only imagine this was the result of 5 different consulting teams, assisted by 3 different outsourced development groups, which was delayed numerous times, then Watson was added, and then a re-org caused by layoffs, which finally resulted in a website that couldn't scroll and caused the CPU of my high-end laptop to scream...

You missed the most important part; it was initiated by a team of lawyers who were tipped off by another team who noticed the Watson design team were using a typeface on public websites which they didn't have the copyright to, and certainly didn't have the license to redistribute. Almost 2 years later, Plex was born. (This is a true story, by the way.)

I'd hope you were kidding, because I went through this very thing, at IBM, in the 1990s and got a corporate legal standard put in place.

Or so I thought, because I'm fairly certain everything we did in the 1990s has been thoroughly erased by ridiculous document retention policies.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#52

Post by zokier » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

Numberwang wrote: post #25

Hmm, this is old right? I remember seeing this months ago.

The news of Plex started coming out late last year, but I think it started appearing on e.g. IBM documentation even earlier than that.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#53

Post by SloopJon » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

uptown wrote: post #10

Here's the download page if you want to avoid the horrific-to-navigate site: https://github.com/IBM/plex/releases/tag/v1.0.1

Any idea why they recommend TrueType over TrueType? Is that a general recommendation, or something specific to this typeface?

Edit: From BoldMonday's comment in issue 103: "TrueTypes can be - and in the case of IBM Plex are - specifically hinted for screen. OpenTypes with PostScript outlines are not able to do that."

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#54

Post by marcelluspye » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:19 PM UTC

This website is so ugly and hard-to-use I honestly thought it was a parody (I still kind of do). Font looks okay, though.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#55

Post by CNJ7654 » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:21 PM UTC

Turn on NoScript, makes the site much better :)

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#56

Post by sunseb » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:24 PM UTC

The website is a pain, the font is very nice though.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#57

Post by nik736 » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:25 PM UTC

On my 4k screen this landing page is a complete disaster.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#58

Post by erikig » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:26 PM UTC

oddevan wrote: post #50

nsxwolf wrote: post #22

Apple, Samsung, Netflix, now IBM... why does everyone need their own typeface? Is it to save on licensing fees? As a user, I don't really find these fonts very distinctive, so I don't associate them with their brands.

In the case of Netflix, it is specifically to save on licensing fees. Gotham is expensive, yo. Apple's always had their own typeface, though I don't remember them using one as heavily as San Francisco. But it feels very in-character for them. Samsung did it, I suspect, because Apple did.

Damn you Tobias Frere-Jones, rolling around in your font wealth!

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#59

Post by grzm » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:30 PM UTC

oddevan wrote: post #50

nsxwolf wrote: post #22

Apple, Samsung, Netflix, now IBM... why does everyone need their own typeface? Is it to save on licensing fees? As a user, I don't really find these fonts very distinctive, so I don't associate them with their brands.

In the case of Netflix, it is specifically to save on licensing fees. Gotham is expensive, yo. Apple's always had their own typeface, though I don't remember them using one as heavily as San Francisco. But it feels very in-character for them. Samsung did it, I suspect, because Apple did.

Apple's always been focussed on design, in both marketing and UI. In marketing, for a long time everything was Apple Garamond, then Myriad. In the UI, Chicago and Geneva were heavy hitters. Now we have San Francisco. A key difference with this last one is that it's used in both the UI and in marketing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography_of_Apple_Inc.

Re: IBM Plex – A new typeface

#60

Post by zokier » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 8:31 PM UTC

nsxwolf wrote: post #22

Apple, Samsung, Netflix, now IBM... why does everyone need their own typeface? Is it to save on licensing fees? As a user, I don't really find these fonts very distinctive, so I don't associate them with their brands.

Especially with company with as many tentacles as IBM, having own typeface also helps ensure consistent design language across the company, both in terms of licensing (they can use it in any media/geography/field they need) and applicability (they can have all the variants etc needed).

Of course cost is also a major aspect. Random article claims that "Until recently, it [IBM] was spending over a million dollars each year to license Neue Helvetica for the company". With that sort of money you can afford to make your own fonts too.

While I'd agree that e.g. the Netflix font was somewhat non-remarkable/forgettable, I think they did manage to capture surprising amount of IBMness into Plex. I noticed it on their docs pages before they made big fuss about it, and really remarked to myself on how neat the font was.