Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#51

Post by enra » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 7:12 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #20

flixic wrote: post #8

As a UI font, this is pretty great. Almost a mix between Circular and San Francisco, it should work well. However, most disappointing and worrying part of font presentation is applications to different movies and TV shows. With the same typeface, they completely lose their identity. Strong, condensed typeface of House of Cards. 80s-inspired typeface for Stranger Things. Minimal and geometric typeface for OA. Cyrillic…

> As a UI font, this is pretty great. I disagree. With high-resolution displays becoming the norm, I'm questioning why so much of the industry is still stuck on sans-serif fonts for UI, and worse, regressing from humanist sanses to neo-grotesk fonts, which are the worst (seriously, if you have to use a sans, use something like Myriad or Noto Sans... which Apple and Google used to use before they jumped on the neo-gro…

My reaction as designer is different. Today, UIs often get quite complex, and can contain at least few different sizes of the text.

1. Serifs often have uneven stroke weights which make them actually actually harder to read in small sizes (8-15), since the thin parts start to breakdown.

2. Letterforms are more complex and generally create more "visual noise" or the texture of the text gets noisy since you have lot of points and ticks on the screen.

I think serifs can work well on titles that are large, quotes, in print or simple ui like articles where you one column of text, mostly in one size. For UI, especially mobile UI feel like it can be quite jarring in any more complex app.

Legibility also comes from the different factors of the typeface (x-height, open counters, distinct letterforms) not only from the fact that it's serif or sans serif.

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#52

Post by enra » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

flixic wrote: post #8

As a UI font, this is pretty great. Almost a mix between Circular and San Francisco, it should work well. However, most disappointing and worrying part of font presentation is applications to different movies and TV shows. With the same typeface, they completely lose their identity. Strong, condensed typeface of House of Cards. 80s-inspired typeface for Stranger Things. Minimal and geometric typeface for OA. Cyrillic…

They seem to state in the article that they will use this in brand and identity but they don't mention use of this in the UI.

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#53

Post by tvmalsv » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 7:38 PM UTC

jccalhoun wrote: post #42

I'm not a fan of sans serif fonts that make it hard to tell the difference between I and l.

Yeah, it felt it a little weird that my first response was to look for a fixed-width version I could try in my editors.

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#54

Post by Froyoh » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

mistersquid wrote: post #31

This announcement is interesting but it's unfortunate that the visual balance in the first rendered image is troubled. In particular, the uppercase "N", the lowercase "e", and the lowercase "t" do not harmonize. The kerning between the "N" and the "e" needs tweaking. This imbalance is especially noticeable because the balance between the characters "tflix" is magnificent, a small textual portrait practically worth fr…

Maybe it's just you and a small handful of people, but I don't find any fault in the typeface. Beautiful!

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#55

Post by sdrothrock » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 10:40 PM UTC

taoistextremist wrote: post #40

sdrothrock wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually appreciate the instantly visible branding; Netflix shows are among the few guaranteed to have proper subtitles.

I see you have not watched La Casa de Papel (or, as they have recently creatively rebranded it in English, "Money Heist"). Yeah, it wasn't produced by Netflix, but they stick their branding on it and have numerous errors in the subtitles.

Netflix productions have errors and missing lines, but they're at least always available. I report the problems and they get fixed pretty quickly.

Here (Japan region), it's fairly difficult to find things with subtitles, which I pretty much need, so I'll take what I can get.

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#56

Post by l9k » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 11:02 PM UTC

With all the Sans typefaces that exist, it must resembles at least one of them. What would happen with the similarities in terms of rights?

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#57

Post by opencl » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 12:05 AM UTC

Daiz wrote: post #37

sdrothrock wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually appreciate the instantly visible branding; Netflix shows are among the few guaranteed to have proper subtitles.

I would disagree with that... Netflix's subs might be passable when they don't have to deal with translating on-screen text, but when that is the case (like with anime, which they've been investing a lot of money into) the presentation is just horrible. Just look at the video in this tweet: https://twitter.com/Daiz42/status/949379951194726401 (also look for the video in the follow-up tweet demonstrating how much bett…

The state of official anime subs is just bad everywhere. Crunchyroll's are not-infrequently total gibberish. Netflix's handling of signs is indeed awful but they do at least (usually) write decent translations. I won't say that fansubs are any better on average but the only actual well-done subs are all fansubs which is kind of sad.

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#58

Post by Terretta » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 3:57 AM UTC

mistersquid wrote: post #31

This announcement is interesting but it's unfortunate that the visual balance in the first rendered image is troubled. In particular, the uppercase "N", the lowercase "e", and the lowercase "t" do not harmonize. The kerning between the "N" and the "e" needs tweaking. This imbalance is especially noticeable because the balance between the characters "tflix" is magnificent, a small textual portrait practically worth fr…

Agree. Terrible first sample.

Especially on the sample shows, rendered too thin on most, feels cheap, super generic, like a poor man’s Arial.

Could maybe somehow be for legibility on really bad TVs?

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#59

Post by xcv_ » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 11:01 AM UTC

bricss wrote: post #15

Where to download? :D

keep an eye out for vk.com, many free fonts there

Re: Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface

#60

Post by Shorel » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 4:39 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #20

flixic wrote: post #8

As a UI font, this is pretty great. Almost a mix between Circular and San Francisco, it should work well. However, most disappointing and worrying part of font presentation is applications to different movies and TV shows. With the same typeface, they completely lose their identity. Strong, condensed typeface of House of Cards. 80s-inspired typeface for Stranger Things. Minimal and geometric typeface for OA. Cyrillic…

> As a UI font, this is pretty great. I disagree. With high-resolution displays becoming the norm, I'm questioning why so much of the industry is still stuck on sans-serif fonts for UI, and worse, regressing from humanist sanses to neo-grotesk fonts, which are the worst (seriously, if you have to use a sans, use something like Myriad or Noto Sans... which Apple and Google used to use before they jumped on the neo-gro…

> Serif fonts have objectively better readability

Actually, for reading long books some serif fonts will tire my sight faster than sans-serif fonts.

It seems to me font readability design is a lot more complex than simply serif vs sans-serif.