Google's new retro-style font brings back serif for more comfortable reading

Google has a new version of its Roboto font, and it's bringing back serif: the aptly named Roboto Serif, designed in collaboration with Greg Gazdowicz of commercial type, to create a more readable serif companion for its Roboto Sans typeface. Has been done.

The new font isn't just old Roboto letters with some serifs slapped on them, though: according to Google UX, each letter was redrawn from scratch to create a font that "thinks of Roboto, but a New and original design" Manager Rob Giampietro. The new font still uses the same vertical ratio as Roboto Sans, making it possible to mix serif and sans-serif versions into a single design.

It probably also helps that chunkier, retro-style serif typefaces are coming back into style in a big way after years of dominance by the minimalist san-serif designs noted by Vox. Serif fonts are also supposed to be easier to read, thanks to more specific letter sizes, something that Google's new font expands on by being a convertible font that automatically transforms and adapts letterform for different sized displays. Can do.

Google has been using its Roboto font in some form or another for over a decade; It was first introduced with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) as the default font for the company's mobile OS. Roboto has seen a number of variants over the years, although it has slowly but steadily replaced its name with Product Sans (and its Google Sans variants, also known as "Pixel" fonts) as the company's primary font. has been converted into various products.

For now, Roboto Serif is being added to Google Fonts as another alternative to the company's Roboto family of open-source fonts — but it's entirely possible that Google may one day be new to its own marketing, too. , use friendly looking fonts.