Roboto Font

License: Free for commercial use

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About Roboto Font

Roboto Font is a typeface from the Antiqua linear sans serif group with a classic grotesque character. The font was designed at Google by Christian Robertson, who previously worked on the former Ubuntu font “Ubuntu-Titling”.

Roboto font has a more user-friendly design, and it will become an excellent carrier for content. The font is very easy to recognize and the shape is unique. The uppercase letters are weakened, while the lowercase letters strengthen and add variety, aiming to eliminate the uniform structure throughout the text, making the text easy to read.

While the Droid Sans font was used for versions from Android up to 4.0, Roboto Font was used for the first time in version 4.0. Bringing a brand new visual effect, full of fashion and modernity. Matias Duarte said in a statement recently published on Google+ that the development team aims to create a new type of font, which is different from traditional print fonts, in line with the continuous development of inter-media interaction characteristics. He explained that we want to make full use of the ultra-high-density screen like the Galaxy Nexus terminal, while still maintaining clear results on low-resolution devices.

It is reported that since the Roboto font has little difference between bold and normal status, users can elegantly change the bold font to normal font when reading e-mails. Matias Duarte also pointed out that the Roboto font has also added a flat style (the width of the number has not changed).

Roboto Font has dual natures. It has a mechanical structure and the shapes are mostly geometric. At the same time, the line has friendly, open curves. The letters are arranged in their normal width. This creates a very natural reading rhythm, which is in elegant lines.

After the launch of Roboto, the similarity with the other Helvetica font was described on several sites. Google was thought to have recreated Helvetica. Roboto looks similar in part to Helvetica but has a few letters with a slightly shorter end.

Since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich began, Google has used Roboto as the interface font. Until recently, they even turned this font into open source for developers to use.

The Roboto font is developed by Google itself and is used as an interface font on Android and Chrome OS to match their Material Design style. Later, Google also opened this font to the public for download, but although everyone can download it for free, it is still an exclusive font. Until recently, it was directly open-source, allowing developers to use and change freely.

Now in addition to the font itself, Google also uploads peripheral software and guidelines such as the font creation tool used to design Roboto on Github, allowing developers and designers to freely change fonts. Relatively speaking, Apple’s own San Francisco font should not become open source, but it is expected to be open to the public to download and use.

Font Features

Roboto features a large variety of different cuts. This font family includes six weights of Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, Black, and their matching italics. In addition, it also includes Roboto Condensed style Light, Regular and Bold three weights with their matching italics. Roboto also has a version with serifs provided under the name “Robot Slap“.

Pairs Well With

Best Used For

Roboto is perfect for Logos, headlines, menus, small or large text. It works well also for brand identities, websites, packaging, posters, articles, titles, editorials, publishing, and many more.