After using Optima Regular (12 point) for nearly three years as my default font (for Apple Mail, Apple Pages, MarsEdit, TextEdit and a sundry of other programs,) I have decided that it is time to switch to Avenir Next Regular (14 point.) Avenir was created by Adrian Frutiger in 1988. It is a geometric sans-serif typeface. In 2004, Frutiger (along with Linotype in house designer Akira Kobayashi) tweaked it to resolve some on-screen display issues and called this new version: Avenir Next. I don’t really know why but I like it. It feels fresh, more open and spacious. It seems to be ideally suited to the high-resolution Retina screen on my 15-inch Macbook Pro. It looks positively vibrant on my iPad (w/Retina) and iPhone. It makes writing a pleasurable experience.
6 thoughts on “My new favorite font: Avenir Next”
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It reminds me of a 1988 word processor font, but it is fitting, 25 years later.
Any favorites that are more on the free side?
Thanks. I look forward to trying it.
Actually, on my 23″ 1080p monitor, on Chrome at 100%, there’s a weird pixelation effect at the top and bottom of “o” and “e” on the headline text. Also the “r” and “n” have extra pixels on top of the rounded area. If I zoom up to 150%, it fixes the problem. I’d say there’s still a scaling issue.
It’s a good choice, but not as good a choice as Source Sans Pro…
Isn’t the whole point of Retina display to be able to use Serif fonts? But the font look really nice indeed. Soon to appear on this very blog?