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Comment by oddevan | Hacker News Reader

In the case of Netflix, it is specifically to save on licensing fees. Gotham is expensive, yo.

Apple's always had their own typeface, though I don't remember them using one as heavily as San Francisco. But it feels very in-character for them.

Samsung did it, I suspect, because Apple did.

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Apple's always been focussed on design, in both marketing and UI. In marketing, for a long time everything was Apple Garamond, then Myriad. In the UI, Chicago and Geneva were heavy hitters. Now we have San Francisco. A key difference with this last one is that it's used in both the UI and in marketing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography_of_Apple_Inc.

> Apple Garamond, then Myriad

The key difference being that Garamond is a classic on its own, and Myriad is even the default font in Adobe products (at least InDesign).

Yeah, the various Garamond variants are classics (tracing their history all the way back to the 15th century!). Apple did commission a dedicated variant for themselves. Similarly, Apple used a Myriad variant, Myriad Apple. That said, my point wasn't that Apple only used Apple designed fonts (which isn't true), but that Apple has always focussed on design in general and typography in particular.

> A key difference with this last one is that it's used in both the UI and in marketing.

That's exactly what I was getting at, thanks!

Also on physical products as well

Damn you Tobias Frere-Jones, rolling around in your font wealth!

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