iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 are part of Apple’s upcoming releases, and there is much fanfare surrounding the launch. One notable feature however, can be had today, without the need to wait for its official release. The San Francisco Font came with the Apple Watch and is set to be a default font for the latest iOS and OS X versions.
Apple created the San Francisco font for the Apple Watch. Alan Dye, Senior Vice President of Human Interface at Apple explained the new typeface while speaking to Wired.
The letters are more square, Dye says, “but with gentle, curved corners,” mimicking the Watch’s case. It’s wide and legible at small sizes, but when it gets larger the letters tighten up a little more. “We just find it beautiful.”
If you are tired of the standard OS X font, then you can try Apple’s newest font, San Francisco right now.
How to get San Francisco Font on your Mac right now
Step 1.
For those interested, the current font for OS X Yosemite is Helvetica Neue. So, if you are not a fan or simply want to try out the new font you can download San Francisco from github here. For those who may be wary about making changing to the default font, please make sure to back up hour device before heading any further in this process.
Step 2.
Extract the zipped font file and save it to your Desktop.
Step 3.
Once you have the font installed and extracted, go to Finder or click an empty space on your desktop and type Command + Shift + G to bring up the Go To menu.
Step 4.
In the space type ~/Library/Fonts/ and hit enter. This will bring up the Fonts folder.
Step 5.
Drag the extracted files for the San Francisco font to the Fonts folder.
Step 6.
Reboot your device and the new font will appear upon login.
Default OS X Yosemite Font Helvetica Neue
Potential OS X 10.11 San Francisco Font
I think the San Francisco font is a tad more modern, but I am so used to the standard Helvetica Neue that I decided to switch back. To switch back, simply type Command + Shift + G. If the entry for ~/Library/Fonts/ isn’t already in, type it again and hit Go. In the fonts folder, select all the San Francisco Font items and throw them in the trash. Reboot, and your font will return to its default.
For those of you looking for San Francisco on your iOS device, you can do so, but you will need to be jailbroken. Install BytaFont 2 and add the repo source: http://dbk1ng.myrepospace.com to Cydia. Search for “San Francisco iOS8” in that repo and install it with BytaFont 2.
I’m interested to know how you guys feel about the new font. Is it a change for the better or do you prefer the default font? Let us know in the comment section.
