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Making Google Sans Flex

design.google

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Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#31

Post by guessmyname »

Is there a monospaced version of this font?

Pretty much every font I try has one or two things that bug me. I’ve spent the last ten years making my own, first in FontForge, now in Glyphs.app, but it’s incredibly time-consuming. I’ll work on it for a while, then give up for months, delete everything, switch to a different font, use it for a few days, start hating it… and end up back at making my own font again. This cycle repeats pretty much every year.

You’ll probably want to recommend your favourite font, but trust me, I’ve tried all the well-known ones, and they all have their quirks.

Edit: I’m going to try Guguru (“Google” pronounced with a Japanese accent) Sans Code for a few days → https://github.com/yuru7/guguru-sans-code , created by https://x.com/tawara_san

Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#32

Post by FireInsight »

the_gipsy wrote: post #22

Cool work on a font, but this page is proof that google is turning the web into some kind of JSON for their app, Chrome. Extremely sluggish on non-Chrome. Starts with a black blank empty page. Fans spinning. Takes way too long to load for just some text and some videos. Clicking a link does some SPA magic that takes me to another black blank page, and takes ages to load. Clicking back doesn't work anymore. I need to…

Huh. Firefox on a mid-range android phone had no issues.

Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#33

Post by albert_e »

torben-friis wrote: post #6

There is something about the page that makes me dizzy on mobile. I’m not sure if it’s a subtle animation but I get the feeling of things moving/deforming while I read.

>> Product lockups didn’t match the new Google logo >> The 2015 logo redesign was a smashing success.

Watch the distance between these two lines.

It changes to more compact - subtly- as we scroll it into view (am on mobile- chrome on android).

Feels like the page is trying to do too much fancy stuff. I cant take their blog seriously if this is their idea of good design and user experience.

Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#34

Post by elAhmo »

I wish I had the luxury of spending probably dozens of millions on a meaningless effort like this. Any similar font like this one would do the trick, without the need to have a fancy series of blog posts trying to convince users this font is awesome.

Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#35

Post by pityJuke »

guessmyname wrote: post #31

Is there a monospaced version of this font? Pretty much every font I try has one or two things that bug me. I’ve spent the last ten years making my own, first in FontForge, now in Glyphs.app, but it’s incredibly time-consuming. I’ll work on it for a while, then give up for months, delete everything, switch to a different font, use it for a few days, start hating it… and end up back at making my own font again. This c…

From TFA:

> Google Sans Mono was created in 2020 to support contexts that needed fixed-width characters for editorial design, at medium and large text sizes. Despite this, it soon got its first big product integration, replacing Roboto Mono in Google Chat. The only problem? Developers hated it.

[...]

> Recognizing this critical need, a dedicated effort was launched to craft Google Sans Code, a monospaced typeface specifically designed to make code more readable. This involved thorough research into the 20 most common programming languages and how developers interact with code, aiming to make the new coding typeface more visually appealing while reducing the ambiguity of similar-looking letterforms. Based on these insights, Google tasked the Universal Thirst foundry to meticulously focus on specific letters, numbers, and operators to meet these requirements. The result is an eminently readable and surprisingly playful typeface.

> Google Sans Code launched as an open-source font in 2025, and is the typeface used to display code in Gemini.

Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#36

Post by orphea »

GaggiX wrote: post #4

I never saw the cursor changing size to fit the button you are hovering on, it's pretty cool, I don't know if it's better but it's cool.

Looks cool. Feels horrible. I don't want my mouse cursor to morph into buttons or anything. I don't want it to be a lagging blob either.

Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#38

Post by mft_ »

TekMol wrote: post #10

Since even after 2 hours nobody is discussing the actual font, let me tell you what comes to my mind when I read anything about Google and design: They got phone design right. I just can't get my head around it that even Apple, which is supposed to be THE design company, is making phones that can't lay on a table without wobbling like a barstool on a crooked floor. It just feels so broken to me. So detrimental to my…

Apple probably has swathes of real-world usability data showing that virtually no-one uses their phone for prolonged periods of time while it's laying down on a hard flat surface.

You may be right about the aesthetics (and Lord Jobs may well have agreed with you) but they may have made the tradeoff consciously.

Re: Making Google Sans Flex

#39

Post by Kuraj »

TekMol wrote: post #10

Since even after 2 hours nobody is discussing the actual font, let me tell you what comes to my mind when I read anything about Google and design: They got phone design right. I just can't get my head around it that even Apple, which is supposed to be THE design company, is making phones that can't lay on a table without wobbling like a barstool on a crooked floor. It just feels so broken to me. So detrimental to my…

I've come to realize that barely anyone I know uses swipe typing anymore, and that this is why using it laying flat is viable in the first place
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