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San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

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Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#31

Post by flomo »

yoctonaut wrote: post #12
gojomo wrote: post #2

For Apple aficionados of a certain vintage, San Francisco will always be the 'ransom font' of the original Mac: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_%28typeface%29

I have to say I was kind of hoping someone had replaced the Helvetica Neue with the old bitmap San Francisco face.

IIRC they made a TrueType version of San Francisco, for all your retina display needs.

Perhaps the following would work. Otherwise it might be on some obscure printer disk. https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/58243/can-i-get-th...

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#32

Post by X-Istence »

LastZactionHero wrote: post #30

After looking over the Yosemite change logs, as a non-iPhone user, it looks like a new font was all I had to look forward to. Every other update seems to concern sharing content between the desktop and iOS devices. And now I'm finding out this new font- my only real reason for a 5GB update- is so unpopular that a hack to replace it is front page on HN.

There is a lot more to Yosemite than just a font change.

1. Calendar/Contacts are cleaned up further from what they used to be.

2. The little green button no longer leaves you wondering what it does, it simply full screens now on a single monitor

3. There seems to be better consistency across many different applications when it comes to look and feel, and all of the partial see-through/blurriness actually feels pretty nice and gives interfaces a little more depth.

4. Improved Safari with a new JIT JavaScript engine that makes the web definitely feel faster

5. iCloud Drive integration, which is nice if you have multiple Macs

6. Spotlight has been massively improved, and is close to replacing Quicksilver for me.

The Apple Watch SDK was released today, and people are falling in love with the new font that was released, this hack simply replaces Helvetica Neue with that new font, there is no requirement for you to do so, and I personally won't be replacing my existing font with the one linked here.

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#33

Post by fredsted »

I was actually saddened when I saw people starting with their patches forcing Lucida back in OS X 10.10.

Helvetica was one of the things that made the iPhone so great.

Helvetica is neutral, timeless and easy to read. It's the perfect user interface font, especially the UI-optimized version OS X 10.10 is using.

As always, people just hate change.

That said, San Fransisco is a cool font, it just looks horrible as a computer font: too much space, and it's almost like all the characters look the same. But for a small device like a watch it's perfect.

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#34

Post by vl »

DigitalSea wrote: post #10

I might not be in the majority, but I actually like the new system font Helvetica Neue. I am a huge fan of it and on a Retina Display it makes so much sense. Understandably those who do not have the luxury of a Retina Display, I can understand the frustration, but having said that, I think the whole system font change thing has been blown out of proportion. Even though I like Helvetica Neue, I really dig the new San…

Yosemite is clearly first version fully optimized for Retina, potentially at expense of non-retina users. Every time I unlock my MacBook Pro I think "wow, this is gorgeous" (I have another one at work not updated to Yosemite, so I see difference every day). Unlike controversial iOS 7 update, Yosemite clearly looks better than the predecessor.

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#35

Post by exogen »

fredsted wrote: post #33

I was actually saddened when I saw people starting with their patches forcing Lucida back in OS X 10.10. Helvetica was one of the things that made the iPhone so great. Helvetica is neutral, timeless and easy to read. It's the perfect user interface font, especially the UI-optimized version OS X 10.10 is using. As always, people just hate change. That said, San Fransisco is a cool font, it just looks horrible as a com…

> it's almost like all the characters look the same.

Interesting you say that, but prefer Helvetica. Quote from Erik Spiekermann in the film Helvetica: "Because all the letters...it's the whole Swiss ideology; the guy who designed it tried to make all the letters look the same."

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#36

Post by nodata »

vl wrote: post #34
DigitalSea wrote: post #10

I might not be in the majority, but I actually like the new system font Helvetica Neue. I am a huge fan of it and on a Retina Display it makes so much sense. Understandably those who do not have the luxury of a Retina Display, I can understand the frustration, but having said that, I think the whole system font change thing has been blown out of proportion. Even though I like Helvetica Neue, I really dig the new San…

Yosemite is clearly first version fully optimized for Retina, potentially at expense of non-retina users. Every time I unlock my MacBook Pro I think "wow, this is gorgeous" (I have another one at work not updated to Yosemite, so I see difference every day). Unlike controversial iOS 7 update, Yosemite clearly looks better than the predecessor.

But very time I open my Air, I think "oh god what have they done".

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#37

Post by gohrt »

bbx wrote: post #14

Typeface designer Tobias Frere-Jones' opinion about Helvetica in Yosemite: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3031432/why-apples-new-font-wont... It echoes Erik Spiekermann's view as well: Helvetica wasn't designed for small sizes on screen. http://spiekermann.com/en/helvetica-sucks/

The FastCo blog article, the one what derides the uselessly thin font, is published in an unreadably thin set of fonts.

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#38

Post by thegeomaster »

DiggityDug7 wrote: post #29
doomlaser wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trend of using ultrathin fonts everywhere will be short-lived and date interfaces quickly. It's a trend inspired totally by the mere fact that high dpi displays can render them without pixelated artifacts, and not because they make sense for design or readability on a fundamental level. Thin weight type has uses in good design, but the way it's being applied ad nauseum today is a gimmick.

Modern fonts have been frequently thin before the invention of retina screens. The overuse of thin fonts might look dated in the future, but I don't agree that this trend is totally inspired by retina screens. If anything, I think Serif fonts have seen the greatest resurgence on web due to Retina screens. High DPI screens will impact our perception of all fonts, just as sans serif grew in popularity on lower dpi scre…

Sans-serif typefaces were historically perceived as more modern than their serif counterparts. The simplicity and lack of letterform "decorations" (which serifs are) suggests a character of precision and rejection of legacy and "old ways". This has been the case ever since Swiss designers started using Helvetica and related typefaces set in clear, grid-based designs with modern color choices. So the modern character of sans-serifs dates far before computers and computer displays.

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#39

Post by h3xe »

So, Apple dedicate a cohort of designers to revitalize UI and what people do in return? They ruin all this by replacing system font with one from a goddamn 40mm watch.

Disgraceful.

As much as I don't like Yosemite (they really broke Spotlight), its UI is much better than that of previous versions.

Re: San Francisco system font replacement for Yosemite

#40

Post by 72deluxe »

Does anyone here have a "low res" (like 1440x900) MacBook? I do - it's from 2012 and was the last to have a CD drive so that I could write CDs for bandmates, plus it has a dedicated Ethernet port instead of a mass of external adapters (useful for AVB testing).

Anyway, since Yosemite the font for the menu bar has been a bit "bitty" and not smooth which contrasts sharply with the rest of the shininess seen everywhere - does this resolve this? I thought I'd ask before taking the plunge.

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