Super sharp screens need better fonts, and app developers are taking notice . “Working with apps is part of our business now,” says a type designer.
For the last four years, iPhone and Android developers haven't spent much time thinking about fonts. Each OS comes stocked with about a dozen serviceable typefaces with names you might recognize: Helvetica, Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana. Devs used these fonts because they were there, they were free, and because they looked fine.
This is changing. Super-sharp screens are making some fonts look bad, or at least boring. Screens are becoming more like paper, so app developers need to start thinking more like traditional designers.
Readability broke ground by licensing a bunch of fonts for its iOS app from Hoefler & Frere-Jones, one of the most prestigious font houses in the world. According to Instapaper developer Marco Arment, this was no small feat:
Via: @marcoarment
Shortly thereafter, as the Retina-display iPad was on its way to stores, Marco released an update to Instapaper containing new licensed fonts from a variety of font houses. It looked great — the default font, Elena, is a beautiful, light serif typeface that's worlds ahead of Verdana or Georgia for reading on an iPhone or iPad screen. It makes articles feel better. More importantly, it makes other fonts feel worse. So it's time for app developers to step it up. It's time to think about fonts again.
