iPhone Restoring Helvetica Neue as System Font in iOS 9

[Skylitfly]

Weird. I actually think San Fransisco is a lot better system font than Helvetica Neue. I like it.

 

[imagineadam]

I hope they at least adjust the status bar time. It looks really wonky and the numbers are too spaced out. Also as a whole some of the text in various places looks too spaced out and I focus in on that when I'm reading something. Then again I've been looking at helvetica for so many years now that anything different looks weird and will take some getting used to like everyone else.

 

[ssray23]

Solution : jailbreak or get an android. After 10 years of iOS you should know changing the font is not possible yet on a system level

Come on keep the level of posts up

There can always be a first time. Even if it is after 10 years. What is the harm in asking?

 

[jonblatho]

Rabble rabble these letters are uglier than those letters rabble Android rabble!

Rabble Steve Jobs rabble rabble!

 

[Nadir98]

No hate, but SF looks worse on non-retina displays than Helvetica Neue.

 

[Shirasaki]

I get used to it as long as I see it in somewhere. Oh, yes, on Apple watch. I can assume my adoption period is only 1s.

Try to get used to it, or wait for jailbroken.

 

[KALLT]

No hate, but SF looks worse on non-retina displays than Helvetica Neue.

But the readability is noticeably better.

 

[hovscorpion12]

In order to change the system font back to Helvetica is to downgrade back to iOS 8. iOS 9 comes with San Francisco font and can not be changed. The only real way to have Helvetica on iOS 9 is to jailbreak, However jailbreaking iOS 9 does not exist

 

[aldrinjtauro]

Just switched from an HTC One (M8) to an iPhone 5S a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't stay on iOS 8, had to go to 9 at least because of the font. That's probably one of the things Google did right so long ago with Android, designing a font specifically for readability on small screens. Even though SF is quite similar to Roboto, I'll definitely say it's a welcome change.

 

[lesliehuber]

Can someone please tell me why Helvetica was hard to read? I still don't really understand anyone's reasoning about that. I thought it was just fine. It's essentially the same as Arial and these are both pretty widely used. If you have problems with your eyesight, then increase the font size on your phone! San Francisco looks childish, and not like Apple. They might as well have used Comic Sans. Awful.

 

[Paddle1]

Can someone please tell me why Helvetica was hard to read? I still don't really understand anyone's reasoning about that. I thought it was just fine. It's essentially the same as Arial and these are both pretty widely used. If you have problems with your eyesight, then increase the font size on your phone! San Francisco looks childish, and not like Apple. They might as well have used Comic Sans. Awful.

The San Francisco font has letters spaced out and designed for easier readability. Personally I'm fine with either font.

 

[Paradoxally]

Rabble rabble these letters are uglier than those letters rabble Android rabble!

Rabble Steve Jobs rabble rabble!

Reminded me of South Park

 

[KALLT]

Can someone please tell me why Helvetica was hard to read? I still don't really understand anyone's reasoning about that. I thought it was just fine.

The thing is: you shouldn’t use a typeface that works only for some people, you should use one that works for most. The primary function of a typeface is readability, unless it is meant to be eye-catching in itself. Helvetica Neue is a weird hybrid that works on some level for body text, but it is a more popular choice for logos, signage and larger surfaces. The problem with Helvetica Neue is that it has just one cut that is used for every font size and a range of widths and thicknesses. It has no optical sizes and no alternative cuts for different canvas sizes.

San Francisco solves that problem: there is a font for iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan and there is another for the Apple Watch. They share common design features but differ when readability was key. Both cuts have also two optical sizes that are optimised for small and large text. You thus have a font that was specifically designed for the display size and an optical size that was specifically designed for that text size. Each of these were designed for legibility. For instance, the text optical size has larger lower-case characters in relation to upper-case characters, which makes them easier to read. They also changed the look of some characters, like the i so that it is easier to identify.

You should check out the presentation at the WWDC: https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2015/?id=804.

Gizmodo posted this image last year:

 

[spacemnspiff]

The thing is:

Thanks for the informative post.

 

[phillytim]

Frankly, most people don't even notice it unless they are told that the font has changed.

That is meaningless to the OP, I understand; but I'm very detail-oriented and readily analyze font details, and I have to say that San Francisco is NOT at all that much of a departure from the Helvetica Nueue.

I needed a couple seconds to warm up to San Francisco, and now I love it.

To me, it's not worth compromising the security of my iPhone with a jailbreak. The potential negatives of jailbreak outweigh the positives, by far.

 

[mpainesyd]

This is not just a matter of aesthetics.

I use a navigator app that displays vehicle speed. it worked perfectly in ios8. In ios9 anything over 100km/h displays as 10..
I suppose the app devloper will eventually change the app to cope with the new font but the inability to change the system font is very irritating.

 

[iceninja]

Hi everybody, Sorry for dig up an old post! As the jailbreak came out, I jailbreak my devices and use Byta font 3 and tweak mode to change all my font back to Helvetica Neue. And things look good like before!!!

I wonder why there is no Helvetica Neue in Swap Mode. Tried to look for it but still not found.

and I have some problems with the font Helvetica Neue in Bytafont3
I change font of the clock (on lockscreen) to Helvetica Neue Ultralight but the character ":" is different from the original Helvetica Neue Ultralight in iOS7 of my iPhone 4s.
update: Just google and know that the colon mark (only) is from another font (avenir font). Don't know how I can adjust the clock font with Helvetica and Avenir query.

Could anyone here make the Helevetica Neue swap font for Bytafont3 and upload it?