Google has presented a new font – or rather, a new font family – for Android devices: it’s called Roboto Serif, and it’s optimized for reading. The font has actually been apparently ready for some time, but Google has only made it official now: it describes it as “minimal and highly practical”, and says it can be implemented in multiple contexts (including app interfaces) thanks to the wide variety of styles available.
The variants are 18 in all, with thicknesses ranging from 100 to 900 and regular and cursive slants. There are three spacing: regular, condensed and extended. Google says that the “thanks” applied to the characters are barely noticeable – we take this opportunity to remind you that the difference between a “Serif” font and a “Sans Serif” (in fact, “with thanks” and “without thanks”) is that the first has orthogonal appendages at the edges of a character (think of the “feet” of a capital A, to give a practical example). Serif fonts are more traditional, and recall the times of print, while Sans Serif is more modern and current, and has spread especially with computers and the advent of digital.
The Roboto family is now over 10 years old. It was part of one of the most radical revolutions in Android design, the famous Holo language which debuted with version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and which came before Material Design, the evolution of which we still have today. At present, there are Roboto Sans, Roboto Mono, Roboto Slab and Roboto Condensed.
Apparently, Google has commissioned the work of developing the font to an external team: specifically the specialized company Commercial Type, founded by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz in New York in 2007. It is available for free download (link SOURCE) and distributed under the Open Font license.