Inter vs Roboto
Two sans-serif faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
At a glance
- Personality
- Neutral, engineered
- Neutral, faintly humanist
- Small-size clarity
- Excellent, taller x-height
- Very good
- Ecosystem
- Modern product UIs
- Android / Material
- Released
- 2017
- 2011
InterRoboto
The honest take
This is the definitive modern UI sans face-off. Roboto (Christian Robertson, 2011) is Android's system face and one of the most-served fonts on earth: a neutral grotesque with slightly friendly, humanist curves that never draws attention to itself. Inter (Rasmus Andersson, 2017) was drawn later and specifically for computer interfaces, with a taller x-height and more open apertures that hold up better at small sizes on high-density screens. If you are matching Android or want the familiar, settled feel of the 2010s web, Roboto is the honest choice. If you are building a new product UI today and want maximum small-size clarity plus a slightly wider weight range (400–700 in four steps versus Roboto's 400/500/700), Inter edges ahead. Neither is wrong; Inter simply reflects a decade more of screen-rendering lessons.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Inter 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.