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Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

microsoft.design

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Re: Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

#11

Post by chfalck »

waldothedog wrote: post #9
waldothedog wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way does it look bad? Historically, digital-focus fonts have been drawn specifically to handle very lo res displays, or very small print applications (optical embellishment, ink traps, etc)… but given that type designers are notoriously detail oriented and that font files are collections of vectors, I can’t see a reason why the design would lead to these effects. Ironically (since this is a Microsoft post) Wi…

For clarification, that was a “in what way?” to get more information, not to dispute that it looks fugly for you.

It’s also possible this commenter is seeing a fallback default font if Atpos is not available / didn’t download correctly on their system configuration

Re: Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

#12

Post by giva »

waldothedog wrote: post #9
waldothedog wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way does it look bad? Historically, digital-focus fonts have been drawn specifically to handle very lo res displays, or very small print applications (optical embellishment, ink traps, etc)… but given that type designers are notoriously detail oriented and that font files are collections of vectors, I can’t see a reason why the design would lead to these effects. Ironically (since this is a Microsoft post) Wi…

For clarification, that was a “in what way?” to get more information, not to dispute that it looks fugly for you.

It may as well be down to a matter of taste, but I found it quite harder to read.

I tried to find what exactly i dislike about it, and the impression I get is that the weight and the spacing (kerning?) is inconsistent on the line. It reminds me a bit of linux desktop before the availability of decent free fonts.

Re: Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

#14

Post by Solvency »

It cracks me up when Microsoft posts these infinitesimally niche design projects/articles, where they pretend to care about good design, and then utterly fail to deliver it systematically across the organization, let alone even fractionally.

Remember when Google paid hundreds of freelancers a lot of money to come up with Material, and then how even that fizzled out?

Re: Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

#15

Post by ipsum2 »

Solvency wrote: post #14

It cracks me up when Microsoft posts these infinitesimally niche design projects/articles, where they pretend to care about good design, and then utterly fail to deliver it systematically across the organization, let alone even fractionally. Remember when Google paid hundreds of freelancers a lot of money to come up with Material, and then how even that fizzled out?

I can't think of a single Google interface that isn't on Material, though Material is on its 2nd or 3rd design iteration now.

Re: Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

#17

Post by WorldMaker »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #13

Is it possible to easily download the full suite of Aptos variants? Did they commission expanded designs for the other four like they did for Aptos? Are there monospace or serif versions available?

Office will download the full suite of variants on request.

For other download options (including licensing/redistribution for use outside of Office/Microsoft 365), it looks like Microsoft's usual deal with MonoType Foundry applies to Aptos as well and that you can make purchases at Fonts.com.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/aptos...

Re: Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

#19

Post by Const-me »

waldothedog wrote: post #8
giva wrote: post #5

Is this font designed for HiDpI displays? It really looks bad on my fullhd laptop and on my 32 inch 4k monitor.

In what way does it look bad? Historically, digital-focus fonts have been drawn specifically to handle very lo res displays, or very small print applications (optical embellishment, ink traps, etc)… but given that type designers are notoriously detail oriented and that font files are collections of vectors, I can’t see a reason why the design would lead to these effects. Ironically (since this is a Microsoft post) Wi…

> In what way does it look bad?

For example, on my 27” 4k display with 150% DPI scaling, I can’t easily distinguish commas from dots.

I’ve been using displays like that for a decade now. Aptos is the only font with that issue.

Re: Behind the design: A deep dive into Aptos

#20

Post by NelsonMinar »

KingMob wrote: post #16
NelsonMinar wrote: post #13

Is it possible to easily download the full suite of Aptos variants? Did they commission expanded designs for the other four like they did for Aptos? Are there monospace or serif versions available?

It's in the article, but tl;dr yes

I read the whole article before asking and just re-read it again. I don't see answers to either of my questions. I'm guessing from other clues in the article the answer to my second question is "no".
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