The San Francisco Font Used To Look Like This

The latest news out of the Apple rumor mill could dramatically change how you text with your friends. Apple's San Francisco font might come to its iPhones, marking the exit of the long-used Helvetica Neue. The new font pays a nice homage to the Silicon Valley company's home, but as some people have pointed out in a major TBT, this wouldn't be the first time a San Francisco font has graced an Apple screen.

You might not realize it, but fonts are a pretty BFD. A font is a means of expression, a way for you to communicate your words to another a person. Are you the classic and stoic Times New Roman? Or the juvenile project-y Comic Sans? If I said what's the Walt Disney font, you probably would recognize its familiar sweeps and swishes.

The font San Francisco is already used on the Apple Watch so the decision to switch out the iPhone's Helvetica wouldn't be so out there. When Apple first launched its smartwatch, the then-unnamed typeface was the perfect height and line width to be legible on a small screen. Even with iPhone screens bigger than ever, the skinnier font would make the company's typeface uniform across all of its devices. After all, Apple's new 12-inch MacBook already uses the San Francisco font for its keyboard.

Funny enough, this isn't Apple's first San Francisco font. Back in the yonder years of 1984, the company's first Macintosh computer included a handful of city-named typefaces that looked like an attempt to represent a specific location. San Francisco's funky font used alternate sizing and bolding, which definitely gave off the hip vibe of SF's free love.

While the old San Francisco wouldn't work these days — imagine writing out work emails with it! — the new font is a welcome change. Apple's an expert in making slight tweaks seem revolutionary, and who knows how the more slender typeface will change your iPhone habits. Maybe lengthy texts will no longer read like essays or perhaps you'll comfortably read a news article (like this one) without having to squint your eyes. The possibilities are endless.