Barlow vs Roboto
Two sans-serif faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Jeremy Tribby · 2017 · weights 400, 500, 600, 700, 800
At a glance
- Proportions
- Slightly condensed
- Standard
- Feel
- Faintly industrial, signage
- Neutral, Android
- Weights
- 400–800, five steps
- 400 / 500 / 700
- Designer
- Jeremy Tribby, 2017
- Christian Robertson, 2011
BarlowRoboto
The honest take
Two grotesque sans faces with a shared low-key, functional feel but different proportions. Roboto (Christian Robertson, 2011) is Android's mechanical-but-friendly grotesque, drawn at fairly standard proportions and tuned to the Material UI grid. Barlow (Jeremy Tribby, 2017) is a slightly rounded, low-contrast grotesque with a subtly narrower, more condensed rhythm inspired by the public signage of California — it packs a little more text per line and offers a wider 400–800 range. Choose Roboto for the familiar Android look and a safe, neutral default. Choose Barlow when you want a marginally more efficient, faintly industrial grotesque with more weights to play with, good for dense dashboards and transit-style branding. Both are clean and unobtrusive; Roboto is the more universal, Barlow the slightly more characterful and space-saving.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Barlow over Roboto. Where they agree the strokes merge; where they argue, fringes.
“Hamburgefonstiv” is the type designer's test word — it carries most of the shapes that give a face away.