The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
New York vs SF Pro
Apple's two in-house system faces, built to sit side by side. SF Pro is the neo-grotesque sans that runs every Apple interface, while New York is its transitional serif companion, first shipped for Apple Books and now the system's reading and editorial voice.
New York is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Source Serif 4, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to New York → 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
- SF Pro is a neutral neo-grotesque in the Helvetica and FF DIN lineage, with nine weights, four widths, and a rounded variant; New York is a transitional serif with six weights and no width axis.
- Both use optical sizing: SF Pro switches between Text and Display cuts around 20 points, and New York spans four sizes from a traditional reading face at small sizes to a graphic display face at large ones.
- New York carries OpenType lining and text figures in proportional and tabular widths, aimed at long-form reading and editorial layouts rather than UI chrome.
- Both are proprietary Apple fonts: free to download, but licensed only to registered Apple developers for designing software on Apple platforms, so they cannot be embedded in products or used on the web or in print without separate permission.
New York
Reach for New York when you need a bookish, editorial serif for reading-heavy Apple apps, long-form content, or a Lock Screen or headline treatment that contrasts with the system sans.
SF Pro
Reach for SF Pro for native Apple UI, where it is the platform default and matches system controls, Dynamic Type, and SF Symbols exactly.