What are your favorite fonts to use for interface design?

7 years ago from Javin Ladish, Freelance Designer

Hey Everyone,

As the topic title states, "What are your favorite fonts to use for interface design?"

As I'm sure most of you can agree, I'm tired of seeing Helvetica Neue plaguing hundreds, if not thousands, of app interfaces. Lately, I've been purposely trying to stray away from using Helvetica in my designs and opt for a few lesser used fonts instead.

Two of my current favorites are Source Sans Pro and Lato.

So DN, what are some of your favorite fonts to use when designing interfaces?

36 comments

Art Vandelay, 7 years ago
I tend to use Papyrus or Impact, depending on the project.
20 points
- Oliver Johnston, 7 years ago
  Papyrus really fits in with that "Flat" trend that is going around.
  4 points
Dominik Schmidt, 7 years ago
- Source Sans Pro
- Open Sans
- Proxima Nova
- Museo Sans
- And many more sans typefaces...
8 points
- Joe Villanueva, 7 years ago
  This is pretty much all I'm using. Typically a more discerning visual designer comes behind and tweaks a few things from my interface designs.
  0 points
  - Dominik Schmidt, 7 years ago
    Oh, do not forget good ol' Helvetica Neue
    0 points
- Jayna Wallace, 7 years ago
  With the exception of Museo Sans, your list is identical to mine.
  0 points
- Patrick Palombo, 7 years ago
  This.
  Boy I like Proxima Nova.
  Also, working with android, I really started to like Roboto.
  0 points
Angad Kingra, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )
Yep, looks like all of us are on the Lato/Source Sans Pro bandwagon. Monteserrat is nice too.
8 points
Gadzhi Kharkharov, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )
As for UI font choices, I'm currently digging these:
6 points
- Cihad Turhan, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )
  I'll try Avenir and see how it goes.
  1 point
  - Miguel Solorio, 7 years ago
    Absolutely love Avenir. It feels like the new Helvetica.
    1 point
- Zach Kuzmic, 7 years ago
  I second PT Sans
  0 points
- Dustin Kemper, 7 years ago
  +1 Apercu, that has been my favorite in general for a long time running.
  0 points
Tor Løvskogen Bollingmo, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )
I like this article on the topic: http://typecast.com/blog/type-on-screen-5-faces-for-ui-design and this one: http://www.design-by-izo.com/2011/10/18/what-should-i-look-for-in-a-ui-typeface/
4 points
Tom Wood, 7 years ago
All we're doing is avoiding Helvetica Neue (a popular font for a good reason) and congregating around PT Sans, Lato, et al.
You only have to look at Font Squirrel to see how this trend is pretty widespread. A few months from now a different user is going to write a similar post but replace "Helvetica Neue" with "Source Sans".
4 points
James Dellar, 7 years ago
Roboto, is a great clean typeface
3 points
Aaron Martin, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )
For the Hightail redesign I chose Verb, which has proved surprisingly adept.
Serifs: • Gentium • Neuton • Merriweather • PT Serif
Sans: • Open Sans • Oswald (for headlines) • PT Sans • Source Sans Pro
2 points
Maciej Zadykowicz, 7 years ago
H&FJ Whitney is super nice and with their ScreenSmart thing it renders amazingly well on screen. Other than that both Open Sans and Avenir Next are superb choices.
2 points
Jake Zien, 7 years ago
I've been using Aperçu as an all-purpose brand typeface at Floored, with FF Yoga in a supporting role. (Took me forever to find a serif face that'd play nicely with Aperçu, though.)
2 points
- Art Vandelay, 7 years ago
  I love Apercu, I'm waiting (unfortunately) for it to become the next Gotham, Brandon Grotesque.
  1 point
Dita A S, 7 years ago
For me, Segoe is the new Helvetica. Lato for header related.
1 point
Tommy Sadler, 7 years ago
I really like Montserrat. It's one of my favorite fonts at the moment. http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Montserrat
1 point
Michael Parapetti, 7 years ago
comic sans
1 point
Spencer Holtaway, 7 years ago
I've been a fan of Avenir on iOS. Looks great on Retina and adds a human(ist) touch to a UI, if it needs it. Helvetica Neue can feel cold and functional so it can be a nice alternative at times.
1 point
Removed Account, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )
· Montserrat
· Lato
· Roboto & Roboto Slab
· Open Sans
1 point
Eugene Kudashev, 7 years ago
There's a lot of nice fonts mentioned above. I'll add a few favourites: Gotham and Museo Sans are beautiful geometric sans-serifs with a wide range of faces from light to bold.
1 point
Joe Fritz, 7 years ago
A current favorite of mine is Open Sans. Free, embeddable, lots of weights.
1 point
Jake Lazaroff, 7 years ago
I love Atrament Web (https://typekit.com/fonts/atrament-web). It goes great with Proxima Nova (https://typekit.com/fonts/proxima-nova) as well!
1 point
Andrew Lucas, 7 years ago
Open Sans is pretty trusty
1 point
C___ F_____, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )
Helvetica Neue with Arial as a fallback. They're nice, readable typefaces – there's no reason to use something different just because they're popular.
That being said, I have a penchant for nice condensed/tall geometric typefaces for headers, i.e.:
Trade Sans
and DIN-based faces for number-heavy interfaces, i.e:
DIN Next Pro
1 point
Antonio Ordóñez Forero, 7 years ago
Proxima Nova and Open Sans do the job for me.
1 point
Ian Goode, 7 years ago
Depends on the interface in question. At the moment I'm using Source Sans Pro because it's ever so slightly condensed and works well in narrow table columns.
1 point
Mathieu Mayer, 7 years ago
Anyone has ever used (or seen) Brandon Grotesque as a primary face for iPhone app?
0 points
- Seah C-B, 7 years ago
  No, but I've seen it used as a text face on websites and it looks terrible at small sizes. Brandon Text is a better choice. Higher x-height.
  0 points
- Brett Jones, 7 years ago
  Brandon Grotesque seems to be popular as a display typeface, mainly at large sizes (and often stylized in all capitals).
  0 points
Javin Ladish, 7 years ago
Whoops, I should have written "Ask DN" in the topic title.
0 points

Designer News

Join Us

What are your favorite fonts to use for interface design?

36 comments

Join Us

Login to Comment

Register Today