The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Neue Montreal vs Roboto
A Montreal-made display grotesque against the sans-serif Google ships on every Android phone. Both descend from the Helvetica lineage of neo-grotesques, but Neue Montreal is a tightly spaced brand face from Pangram Pangram, while Roboto was engineered by Google for on-screen reading across an entire operating system.
Neue Montreal is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Switzer, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Neue Montreal →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Neue Montreal, designed by Mathieu Desjardins and released by Pangram Pangram in 2018, uses tighter spacing than classic neo-grotesques, which is why it shines in headlines and logotypes rather than long text.
- Roboto, designed by Christian Robertson for Google in 2011 as the Android system font and reworked in 2014 for Material Design, is tuned for legibility on screens at small sizes.
- Neue Montreal ships with true italics, whereas Roboto's slanted styles are obliques rather than drawn italics.
- Roboto is free under the SIL Open Font License and available as a variable font, while Neue Montreal is commercial: the trial is personal-use only and any client or commercial work needs a paid licence.
- Roboto's wide, open 2014 forms feel more neutral and system-like, while Neue Montreal's compact fit gives it a sharper, more editorial presence.
Neue Montreal
Reach for Neue Montreal when a brand identity, poster, or landing-page headline needs that tight Swiss-style punch and the licence cost is justified.
Roboto
Reach for Roboto for product UI, Android apps, and body text, where its screen tuning, variable axes, and zero licence cost make it the safe default.