The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
SF Pro vs Roboto
Two neo-grotesque system sans-serifs built for screens. SF Pro has been Apple's platform face since it replaced Helvetica Neue in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, while Roboto, designed by Christian Robertson for Google, has been Android's default since 2011. They solve the same problem for rival ecosystems, and the deciding factor is almost always licensing rather than letterforms.
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 proprietary: Apple licenses it only to registered developers for designing and building apps on Apple platforms, so you cannot embed it in a website or use it on Android or Windows.
- Roboto is free under the SIL Open Font License, ships on Google Fonts, and can be embedded, modified, and redistributed on any platform.
- SF Pro ships nine weights, four widths, a rounded variant, and optical sizes, with the OS switching from Text to Display cuts at 20 points for tighter display spacing.
- Roboto's variable version carries weight, width, and italic axes, with styles that are obliques rather than true italics.
- SF Pro draws on Helvetica and FF DIN for a cooler, more compact neutrality, while Roboto's 2014 redesign made it slightly wider and rounder with rounded tittles and punctuation.
SF Pro
Reach for SF Pro when you are building a native iOS, macOS, watchOS, or tvOS app and want text that matches the system exactly, accepting that the license stops at Apple's platforms.
Roboto
Reach for Roboto for Android apps, Material Design products, and any website or cross-platform project where you need a free system-grade neo-grotesque that you can embed and ship without restriction.