Podium Sans

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Podium Sans is the typeface used on all models of iPod with color displays previous to the iPod lineup refresh on September 5, 2007.

Typeface Set of characters that share common design features

In typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts each composed of glyphs that share common design features. Each font of a typeface has a specific weight, style, condensation, width, slant, italicization, ornamentation, and designer or foundry. For example, "ITC Garamond Bold Condensed Italic" means the bold, condensed-width, italic version of ITC Garamond. It is a different font from "ITC Garamond Condensed Italic" and "ITC Garamond Bold Condensed", but all are fonts within the same typeface, "ITC Garamond". ITC Garamond is a different typeface from "Adobe Garamond" or "Monotype Garamond". There are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly.

When the iPod photo was first announced Apple claimed [1] that the device featured a "new Myriad typeface," stating...

Myriad (typeface) typeface

Myriad is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems. Myriad was intended as a neutral, general-purpose typeface that could fulfil a range of uses and have a form easily expandable by computer-aided design to a large range of weights and widths.

Now in living color, it's easier to read than ever. That’s thanks in part to the clarity of the display – it offers 220x176-pixel resolution – and in part to the new Myriad typeface.

The use of Adobe Myriad would have been the first example of Apple using the same font in branding and user interface and indeed the high-res advertising mock-ups clearly used the font. However, at the time few noticed that the font on the devices was missing Myriad's trademark features, such as its 'k' and 'K', its splayed 'M' and distinctive 'y'. Some of these changes, such as the straightening of the 'M', could be explained by Apple's designers simplifying the design to accommodate the small size and low resolution of the device compared to print, however other changes are harder to explain.

Whether Podium Sans started life as Myriad or another humanist sans-serif font is up for debate, but Apple no longer mentions the Myriad typeface in connection with the iPod user interface.

On newer models, such as the 3G iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod touch Podium Sans has been replaced with Helvetica Neue Bold, the same typeface used throughout the iPhone user interface.

iPhone line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc.

iPhone is a line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. All generations of the iPhone use Apple's iOS mobile operating system software. The first-generation iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, and multiple new hardware iterations with new iOS releases have been released since.

See also

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WYSIWYG is an acronym for "what you see is what you get". In computing, a WYSIWYG editor is a system in which content can be edited in a form closely resembling its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

iPod A line of portable media players designed by Apple

The iPod is a line of portable media players and multi-purpose pocket computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about ​8 12 months after the Macintosh version of iTunes was released. As of July 27, 2017, only the iPod Touch remains in production.

iSight

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Chicago (typeface) sans-serif typeface

Chicago is a sans-serif typeface designed by Susan Kare for Apple Computer. It was used in the Macintosh operating system user interface between 1984 and 1997 and was an important part of Apple’s brand identity. It is also used in early versions of the iPod user interface. Chicago was initially a bitmap font; as the Apple OS’s capabilities improved, Apple commissioned the type foundry Bigelow & Holmes to create a vector-based TrueType version. The typeface is named after the U.S. city of Chicago, following the theme of original Macintosh fonts being named after major world cities.

Typography of Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. uses a large variety of typefaces in its marketing, operating systems, and industrial design with each product cycle. These change throughout the years with Apple's change of style in their products. This is evident in the design and marketing of the company.

Lucida Grande

Lucida Grande is a humanist sans-serif typeface. It is a member of the Lucida family of typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes. It has been used throughout the macOS user interface from 1999 to 2014, as well as in Safari for Windows up to the browser's version 3.2.3 released on 12 May 2009. As of OS X Yosemite, the system font was changed from Lucida Grande to Helvetica Neue. In OS X El Capitan the system font changed again, this time to San Francisco.

Vincent Connare American typographer

Vincent Connare is a British-American type designer and former Microsoft employee. Among his creations are the Comic Sans font, and the Trebuchet MS font. Besides text typefaces, he finalized and hinted the font Marlett which has been used for scalable User Interface icons in Microsoft Windows since 1995 and created portions of the font Webdings that was first shipped with Internet Explorer.

iPod Nano portable media player by Apple Inc.

The iPod Nano is a portable media player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first generation model was introduced on September 7, 2005, as a replacement for the iPod Mini, using flash memory for storage. The iPod Nano went through several differing models, or generations, since its introduction. Apple discontinued the iPod Nano on July 27, 2017.

Apple's Macintosh computer supports a wide variety of fonts. This support was one of the features that initially distinguished it from other systems.

iPod Classic line of portable media player

The iPod Classic is a portable media player created and formerly marketed by Apple Inc.

iPhone 3GS smartphone developed by Apple Inc. and third generation iPhone

The iPhone 3GS is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the third generation iPhone, successor to the iPhone 3G. It was introduced on June 8, 2009, at the WWDC 2009 which took place at the Moscone Center, San Francisco.

Retina display brand name for high resolution displays featured in many products from Apple Inc.

Retina display is a brand name used by Apple for its series of IPS LCD, and OLED displays that have a higher pixel density than traditional Apple displays. Apple has applied to register the term "Retina" as a trademark in regard to computers and mobile devices with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, and in Jamaica. On November 27, 2012 the US Patent and Trademark office approved Apple's application and "Retina" is now a registered trademark for computer equipment.

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iPad Mini 2 second generation mobile tablet developed by Apple

The iPad Mini 2 is the second generation iPad Mini tablet computer produced and marketed by Apple Inc. It has a design almost identical to that of the first generation iPad Mini but features internal revisions such as the addition of the A7 system-on-a-chip and 2,048 × 1,536 resolution Retina Display. The iPad Mini 2 has nearly the same hardware as its larger sibling, the iPad Air. Apple released the iPad Mini 2 in Space Gray and Silver colors on November 12, 2013.

iPad Mini (1st generation) first device in the iPad Mini series

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iPod Touch (5th generation) fifth generation of the iPod Touch

The fifth-generation iPod Touch was unveiled at Apple's media event alongside the iPhone 5 on September 12, 2012, and was released on October 11, 2012. An all-purpose pocket computer designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-based user interface, it succeeded the 4th-generation iPod Touch. It is compatible with up to iOS 9.3.5, which was released on August 25, 2016.

San Francisco (sans-serif typeface) sans-serif typeface

San Francisco is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface made by Apple Inc. It was first released to developers on November 18, 2014. It is the first new typeface designed at Apple in nearly 20 years and has been inspired by Helvetica and DIN.

References

  1. iPod Photo promotion page via the Web Archive Project