IBM Plex Sans vs Inter
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
Mike Abbink, Bold Monday (IBM) · 2017 · weights 400, 500, 600, 700
At a glance
- Personality
- Distinctive, engineered-warm
- Neutral, invisible
- Best for
- Ownable brand voice
- Safe universal default
- Small-size clarity
- Very good
- Excellent, taller x-height
- Designer
- Bold Monday for IBM, 2017
- Rasmus Andersson, 2017
IBM Plex SansInter
The honest take
Two corporate-grade sans-serifs built for interfaces, with distinct temperaments. IBM Plex Sans (Bold Monday for IBM, 2017) is IBM's brand face: a grotesque with subtle humanist and even faintly slab-influenced details that give it a recognisable, engineered-yet-warm character and a strong institutional presence. Inter (Rasmus Andersson, 2017), from the same year, is more purely neutral and screen-optimised, with a taller x-height that squeezes out slightly better legibility at very small sizes. Choose IBM Plex Sans when you want a distinctive, ownable corporate voice with a bit of personality baked in — it never reads as anonymous. Choose Inter when you want the most invisible, universally safe UI default that gets out of the content's way. Both offer 400–700; Plex has more flavour, Inter more neutrality.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — IBM Plex Sans over Inter. 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.
Read more
More about each face: IBM Plex Sans · Inter