The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Netflix Sans vs SF Pro
Two proprietary corporate sans-serifs that most people have seen but almost nobody can license. Netflix Sans, built in 2018 by Netflix's in-house team with Dalton Maag to replace Gotham, is a clean geometric-leaning brand face, while SF Pro is Apple's neo-grotesque system font, released to developers in 2014 and tuned for interface text at every size.
Netflix Sans is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Montserrat, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Netflix Sans → SF Pro is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Inter, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to SF Pro →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Netflix Sans is a bespoke brand typeface with 'cinematic' uppercase proportions and compact, efficient lowercase, and its arched lowercase t echoes the curve of the Netflix wordmark.
- SF Pro draws on Helvetica and FF DIN and ships with separate Display and Text optical sizes, with Text getting larger apertures and looser spacing below 20 points.
- SF Pro is a far larger system: nine weights, four widths, a rounded variant and variable optical sizing, versus Netflix Sans's six weights from thin to black.
- Neither is for sale: Netflix Sans was made for Netflix's own use and is not distributed to the public, while SF Pro is a free download only for registered Apple developers mocking up Apple-platform apps, with no embedding or use on other operating systems.
- Netflix commissioned its font partly to escape per-seat licensing costs at global scale, which is exactly the cost factor to weigh before planning a project around either face.
Netflix Sans
Reach for Netflix Sans only if you work for Netflix, because its compact geometric voice is locked to that brand and the closest you can get elsewhere is a licensed or free lookalike.
SF Pro
Reach for SF Pro when designing native iOS, macOS or tvOS interfaces, where it is the default, free to registered developers, and reads at small sizes thanks to its Text optical size.