The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
SF Pro vs Graphik
Two neutral grotesques from opposite sides of the fence. SF Pro is Apple's in-house system font, drawn for its own screens and licensed only for mock-ups of Apple-platform interfaces, while Graphik is Christian Schwartz's 2009 editorial workhorse from Commercial Type, sold for use anywhere you pay for it.
SF Pro is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Inter, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to SF Pro → Graphik is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Inter, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Graphik →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- SF Pro ships with optical sizes: Apple's platforms switch to the Display cut at 20 points and up and use the looser-spaced Text cut below that, so small UI text stays open.
- Graphik is a hybrid that pairs round, geometric bowls with the proportions of a mid-century European grotesk, drawing on Neuzeit Grotesk, Folio, Recta and Maxima rather than Helvetica.
- SF Pro's family is nine weights across four widths plus a rounded variant; Graphik runs nine weights across eight widths, from XXXX Condensed to Wide, each with italics.
- Licensing is the hard line: Apple's EULA limits SF Pro to mock-ups of software for its own operating systems and forbids embedding, while Graphik is a paid perpetual license starting at $50 per style, $1,300 for the full collection.
- Graphik was refined for Condé Nast Portfolio, Wallpaper* and T Magazine, so its details are tuned for print running text, captions and subheads as much as screens.
SF Pro
Reach for SF Pro when you are designing for iOS, macOS or another Apple platform, where it is the native system font and the only place its license lets you use it.
Graphik
Reach for Graphik for editorial, brand and cross-platform work that needs a warm, slightly geometric grotesque in many widths, and budget for its commercial license.