Roboto

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Roboto
font Roboto
category Sans serif
Font family Roboto
Font classification American grotesque
Font designer Christian Robertson
Client Open Handset Alliance
Type foundry Beta type
Creation 2011
publication 2012
owner Google
Variations Roboto Slab
example
Font example for Roboto

The Roboto is a font from the group of serif linear antiqua with neo-classical character or sans serif . It is used as its standard font from version 4.0 of the Android operating system and is therefore widely used.

history

While the Droid font was used for the versions from Android to 4.0 , Roboto was used for the first time in version 4.0. It was designed in 2011 by Christian Robertson, who worked at Google as an interface designer. On January 12, 2012, the font was released on the Android Design website under the Apache license . On June 25, 2014, Google published an extensively revised version of Roboto with the material design introduced in Android 5.0. Google Developers describes the font family as a "continuously developing" one and, with the update, is responding to the sometimes severe criticism from the typeface designer scene of the lack of coherence in the aesthetics of the font.

commitment

Initially, only Android was used for the font. Since May 2013 it has also been used as the corporate font for Google+ , Google Play  and Google Maps .

Font styles

The Roboto is characterized by a large variety of different cuts . Google offers extra-light, light, normal, semi-bold, bold, and extra-bold variations, as well as their respective italics and slim styles. A roboto with serifs is also available under the name “Roboto Slab”.

reception

Stephen Coles from Typographica called the first version of the font an "unwieldy mishmash" between Helvetica , Myriad , Univers , FF DIN  and Ronnia . Joshua Topolsky of The Verge , however, described it as "clean and modern, but not overly futuristic" and stated that she was "not a science fiction magazine".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nicholas Jitkoff: "This is material design" , in: Google Developers Blog , Google, June 25, 2014. (Accessed January 2, 2015)
  2. ↑ Christian Robertson: "The New Roboto" , in: Google Developers Blog , Google, July 16, 2014. (Accessed January 2, 2015)
  3. ↑ Darien Graham-Smith: Tried: The new Google Maps . In: PC Pro, May 17, 2013 (English).
  4. ↑ Stephen Coles: Roboto is a four-headed Frankenfont . In: Typographica, October 19, 2011 (English).
  5. ↑ Joshua Topolsky: Exclusive: Matias Duarte on the philosophy of Android . In: The Verge, October 18, 2011 (English).

Web links

Commons : Roboto  - collection of images, videos and audio files