Google has unveiled Roboto Serif, a new typeface for Android that it says should be ideal for reading text online.
Roboto Serif is available now via Google Fonts and will come included with Android as part of Google’s Material Design ethos.
Google says it created Roboto Serif for reading because we spend around seven hours per day reading things online. Clearly, a font designed specifically to do so was needed.
“Roboto Serif joins the functional Roboto superfamily alongside Roboto Sans, Mono, Slab, and Condensed,” says Google font consultant Sarah Daily. “But unlike Roboto Slab, the design of which was derived directly from Roboto Sans, this newest serif brings its own identity to the collection.”
“We wanted it to feel comfortable next to a sans-serif, and not to feel cluttered. It doesn’t need to have serifs everywhere to drive home the point that, ‘I am a serif and have serifs in all the places serifs go,” addec Google’s Rob Giampietro.
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According to 9to5Google, Roboto Serif has four axes: weight: 100–900; width: condensed, regular, extended; optical size: with or without size, 8–14; and grade: -50–100.
Google has also released a full typo specimen document detailing all of the technical details for Roboto Serif, including a range of examples of how the font can be applied in use cases from recipe books to music playlists.
“Google Fonts’ mission is to make web typography better for everyone,” the book added, “We’ve invested heavily in variable font typefaces, as well as in tools for their production, testing, and use, and we’re excited to see what creative designers and developers do with this technology.”