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The Android Font: Roboto

developer.android.com

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Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#21

Post by sad_panda »

cageface wrote: post #19
Steveism wrote: post #7

I'm not a Roboto fan. I think Gruber sums it up the best: http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/font_hipsters

I've been using an Android phone recently after being iOS-only for the last two years and it's really opened my eyes to the agenda of people like Gruber. Don't expect him to give any Google product a fair shake. His recent gushing review of the hideous skeuomorphisms of iPhoto for iOS demonstrates what passes for tech journalism these days.

Lots of tech journalism is like Fox News in its intellectual dishonesty. I know I've been on a jag these past several posts about it, but all the covert agendas and hyper-polarized opinions (page views!) is really doing major damage to the quality of the discourse in practically all online tech communities.

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#22

Post by ajross »

notatoad wrote: post #6
unicornporn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why they haven't added it to the Google Web Fonts directory yet.

Probably because they don't really want people to use it. I imagine the license has to be fairly open to allow for unencumbered distribution with android, but it's a part of the android brand. Every time it gets used outside of android makes it a little more generic and dilutes the android brand a little bit.

If it were visually distinguishable from Helvetica, maybe. But it's really not. It's more modern, more complete, and probably "better" in some typographical way that I don't understand. But it's really not. What this represents to the free software community is a repackaging of a Helvetica-like font in a way that doesn't suck. To anyone concerned about the "Android brand" it's a wash.

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#23

Post by ajross »

Steveism wrote: post #17
mda wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about you trust your own eyes and feelings about this sort of things?

All I did was mention that I agreed with Gruber not that he swayed me one way or the other. I think the fonts in ICS along with the rest of the Android interface is just awful. And obviously saying that in a thread which would appeal to an android user would go over like a lead ballon. Just thinking for myself.

I'll put up good money that you couldn't tell the difference between Helvetica Neue and Roboto in a blind test. Calling a near clone font "awful" is just dumb, sorry.

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#24

Post by Steveism »

ajross wrote: post #23
Steveism wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I did was mention that I agreed with Gruber not that he swayed me one way or the other. I think the fonts in ICS along with the rest of the Android interface is just awful. And obviously saying that in a thread which would appeal to an android user would go over like a lead ballon. Just thinking for myself.

I'll put up good money that you couldn't tell the difference between Helvetica Neue and Roboto in a blind test. Calling a near clone font "awful" is just dumb, sorry.

I'll choose to ignore the insult. Actually, I'm a web designer and I could quite easily tell them apart. Couldn't you?

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#25

Post by karl_nerd »

grantheaslip wrote: post #8
Steveism wrote: post #7

I'm not a Roboto fan. I think Gruber sums it up the best: http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/font_hipsters

I have no idea how much you know about type design, but I get the sense that the vast majority of people disparaging Roboto don't actually know shit about typography, and are just parroting what's been said by a handful of bloggers (many of whom also aren't particularly well versed). If a lot of these guys were asked to rate a bunch of unnamed fonts without the benefit of the internet to tell them what they think abo…

Typographica featured a more educated slashing blogpost about Roboto: http://typographica.org/on-typography/roboto-typeface-is-a-f...

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#26

Post by esolyt »

notatoad wrote: post #6
unicornporn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why they haven't added it to the Google Web Fonts directory yet.

Probably because they don't really want people to use it. I imagine the license has to be fairly open to allow for unencumbered distribution with android, but it's a part of the android brand. Every time it gets used outside of android makes it a little more generic and dilutes the android brand a little bit.

Droid Sans, however, is available in Google Web Fonts.

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#27

Post by bane »

joshma wrote: post #9
Steveism wrote: post #7

I'm not a Roboto fan. I think Gruber sums it up the best: http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/font_hipsters

Gruber's post contains nothing substantive except for "The criticism is simply that Roboto is ungainly, homely, unharmonious." The remainder of the post is a diatribe that only succeeds in saying "nobody else likes it either."

I'd say it was more:

"Roboto is ungainly, homely, unharmonious and it looks exactly like Helvetica, which of course is gainly, beautiful and harmonious."

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#28

Post by chrisrhoden »

Steveism wrote: post #7

I'm not a Roboto fan. I think Gruber sums it up the best: http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/font_hipsters

Gruber doesn't sum anything up. The post you linked to states that everyone claiming that the font isn't very bad or defending it is wrong. He doesn't say anything else.

It's very very clear that he doesn't care to give anything Android related a single positive thought. I don't care why, it's not something I choose to engage with, but you can't honestly suggest that (1) the linked article actually said anything other than, "I know you are, but what am I," or that (2) ANYTHING Gruber says about Android can ever be taken at face value after his very long and well documented tendency to go beyond the truth to disparage it.

I think that an argument can easily be made that the font doesn't look classically right on a large screen. On the devices I have seen it on (especially because the weight is usually so low that the terminators are essentially invisible) it looks just fine.

But guys, seriously, don't use this on a webpage.

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#29

Post by fpgeek »

icebraining wrote: post #18
sad_panda wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JC almighty. Why do so many people need to have such STRONG OPINIONS about everything that isn't what they happen to own?

Well, if you're talking about Gruber, having opinions is pretty much his job.

Is having opinions Gruber's job or reinforcing them?

Re: The Android Font: Roboto

#30

Post by idspispopd »

Roboto is Google's Arial.

It's the result of intellectual property licensing.

It's pointless comparing Google to Apple here. Apple has learnt that it's more important to license fonts from the legitimate IP holders instead of generating dupes that are just different enough to avoid a damages case. Even when creating custom typefaces based on existing fonts, Apple have engaged the original IP holder to create the font (see Apple Garamond.)

Roboto a chimera of existing popular typefaces and the problem with that is that it's a poorly assembled "frankenfont", the borrowed sections are obvious and poorly connected, this creates an inconsistent aesthetic. Namely a shitty typeface.

However, just like Arial, everyday users don't, and won't care - there is no point fussing over it, the only thing this shows is that Google hires lame design agencies, and is perhaps not as thoughtful as championed.

The problem with Hacker News is that there is a demongraphic of two faced users who gush over their preferred tech companies, while scorning others. Note here that Microsoft did similar with Windows 7 and the dialogue was far different to what I'm reading today.

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