
Netflix Sans, a new custom typeface - ingve
https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/netflix-sans-typeface-dalton-maag-graphic-design-210318
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flixic
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 alphabet
inspired treatment of R in Icarus.

They all were different and appropriate, and here they are all very 2010's
generic sans-serif, losing all personality.

I'm happy to see Netflix Sans in UI, but sure hope it doesn't go deeper, into
actual show branding.

~~~
amyjess
> 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-
grotesk bandwagon).

The only reason to not use a serif font is because at low resolutions, the
serifs blur into a mess, but low resolutions aren't an issue anymore. And on
top of that, hinting is a thing. Serif fonts have objectively better
readability, and subjectively they're much prettier than anything else.

I've been using Noto Serif as my main UI font on pretty much everything for a
couple of years now, and it's absolutely perfect. I'll never go back to a sans
for UI.

~~~
Freak_NL
> With high-resolution displays becoming the norm

It will be years before TVs as well as desktop monitors are HiDPI in
overwhelming numbers. 720p/1080p is pretty much the norm for those now. These
fonts are meant to be usable on the vast majority (> 95%) of customer's
screens, not just the minority (majority soon) of HiDPI screens.

> The only reason to not use a serif font is because at low resolutions, the
> serifs blur into a mess, […]

Nonsense. It's also an aesthetic call. We are not just using sans-serif fonts
because our screens can't do better; sometimes they just work on their own
merits (whether that's legibility or appearance).

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mistersquid
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
framing on its own.

~~~
bshimmin
I felt like this too. I'm also confused by the "subtle cinemascopic curve" at
the top of the "t" which doesn't appear to be replicated anywhere else in the
font.

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ghostcluster
Well, it's much more successful a design department indulgence than
[https://dropbox.design](https://dropbox.design)

It looks pretty good. But both initiatives are retro throwback Design
Affectations — "Our Own Helvetica!" — and, for my tastes, it is a little bit
twee to apply it over the whole interface. A better executed PT Cruiser is
still a PT Cruiser.

It feels like a corporate design macro fashion trend, like ultrathin weight
fonts were a few years ago, or square composition photos and enforced circular
cropped avatars.

~~~
cheeze
That page just hurt my eyes...

~~~
dna_polymerase
Really? I actually liked it. It doesn't look like most of tech redesgins,
reminds me of American Ads from the 60's. I like how they do thing
differently.

~~~
pcurve
As a design person, I think it's pretty terrible. But it is also terrible with
such conviction that you can't help but wonder, "hrm, I suppose this is good?"

With that said though, even though that particular page looks terrible, I
think properly implemented page can look pretty compelling.

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sdrothrock
> With the global nature of Netflix’s business, font licensing can get quite
> expensive

Interesting that they'd say "global" when the font shown is just basic English
-- no accents, circumflexes, etc.

I'll be really interested if they make their own CJK font as well -- that's a
tremendous undertaking.

~~~
chomp
A lot of licenses are negotiated based on viewership and market size. I'd
imagine that they computed cost-benefit and determined that doing basic
English letters was sufficient to cut their licensing costs. iQiyi would
probably benefit from a custom CJK font, depending on how those licenses work
in Asia.

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ggregoire
> creating a bespoke font was driven by escalating costs

> With the global nature of Netflix’s business, font licensing can get quite
> expensive

How does it work? I thought commercial fonts were a one-time purchase, is it
different for businesses like Netflix?

~~~
hoofta
Yes. Most commercial fonts are actually not a one time purchase, but are
instead licensed over a period of time. The licensing agreement usually
stipulates how many time they may serve that font from their services - the
more time it is served, the more $$$ it costs

~~~
amyjess
In that case, why not use an open-source font like Noto? No licensing fees and
no need to spend money hiring a type designer.

~~~
ggregoire
I guess for branding. Now they have their own font associated with their
service.

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sschueller
Doesn't appear to be open source. Too bad.

~~~
seba_dos1
Yeah, I'm not sure how that's a newsworthy thing here then. A company got a
new font, that's it. Maybe as a little curio about licensing fees being so
bad, sure, but otherwise?

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

~~~
chapium
In the context that netflix wants to use these fonts, how is this a problem?

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dmix
Any visual comparisons available between this font and their previous primary
font they were using? Or Helvetica which it seems very similar to?

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dsr_
I, too, like the Neue Haas Grotesk variant of Helvetica. But I can't get too
excited about another teeny tweak to it.

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cpeterso
Does Netflix's existing wordmark use Netflix Sans (retroactively)? Will the
wordmark be updated?

It wasn't clear in the article. It said "the arched cut on the lowercase “t”
is apparently inspired by the “cinemascopic curve” of the brand’s wordmark".
"Inspired by" suggests it is not an exact match.

~~~
bbctol
The font doesn't really look anything like the wordmark (unless there's a
condensed version?) so I'd assume they're separate.

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balls187
The blurb about saving on font licensing costs, reminds me about RLM's
apocryphal quip about George Lucas saving money on printer ink by change
"Revenge of the Jedi" to "Return of the Jedi"

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mdekkers
_as foundries move towards impression-based licensing for their typefaces in
many digital advertising spaces_

That's a fancy way of saying "as foundries price themselves out of business"

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d--b
First thought: looks like the nutella typeface mixed with helvetica.

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l9k
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?

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bricss
Where to download? :D

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

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peter_vukovic
Because none of the 858 open source, free for commercial use Google Fonts were
a good fit? Such an excess.

~~~
Nadya
Or the FLOSS alternative Google created to specifically solve the whole
"International Audience" problem. [0]

The slight curve on the lower-t of Netflix Sans actually bothers me because
it's the only curve of its kind. The "straight exit strokes" and "flat
horizontal terminals" makes it inconsistent. Why not use that curve for the
starting verticals of the lower-b, lower-d, or lower-h? [1]

[0] [https://www.google.com/get/noto/](https://www.google.com/get/noto/)

[1] [https://vgy.me/kJ2plQ.png](https://vgy.me/kJ2plQ.png)

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ncmncm
Like the world needs yet another Sans typeface.

The only objective measure of the value of a typeface for reading
comprehension showed that serif faces are overwhelmingly better. The only
thing favoring sans-serif faces is fashionability among graphic designers.
Making new ones does nothing for anyone except the designer.

~~~
d4l3k
Seems like most of the research on that is inconclusive. There's not much
evidence one is much more readable than the other.

[http://alexpoole.info/blog/fighting-bad-typography-
research/](http://alexpoole.info/blog/fighting-bad-typography-research/)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif#Readability_and_legibili...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif#Readability_and_legibility)

