Nokia creates a new font, makes smartphones more legible

Nokia has been using the same font, Nokia Sans, for as long as any technology journalist can remember. The Finnish firm thought it was a bit long in the tooth, so they came out with “Nokia Pure”. An untold sum of money was spent developing this new typeface, and what makes it slightly interesting is that Finlandia Vodka helped in the design process. Yes, Northern Europeans love their spirits, and you’d have to be drinking heavily to think that switching fonts is going to do anything to your company’s image.

Aapo Bovellan, Studio Nokia’s Director of Brand and Marketing says: “Nokia Pure is a celebration of our Finnish design heritage. We wanted to give it a natural, flowing form, while creating something that is highly functional and neutral. Nokia Pure has a clarity of purpose and as little design as possible. It’s made to celebrate human creativity.” Right, the same human creativity that involves admitting that Finnish engineers can’t make Symbian competitive enough so it’s time to get rid of them and use an operating system that’s yet to prove itself on the market from a company who was once a fierce competitor.

Where is Nokia going to use this font exactly? Windows Phone has tight rules about what sort of tweaks you’re allowed to apply, and a complete replacement of the font library is probably not on that very short list. There’s also the remaining 150 million Symbian devices that will ship over the next two years … but what happens after that? Series 40 will get a nice update, but those devices are for the low and mid end markets, so high resolution screens that can display Nokia Pure in perfect detail with minimal aliasing are probably not be in the pipeline.

Billboards, posters, magazine ads, they’ll look better, but ads don’t equal sales.

Image above is a screenshot of the Nokia N8 with the new Nokia Pure font.
Hat tip to James Whatley.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

http://www.yashmaheshwari.com Yash Maheshwari

Dude, I guess you have made it a point not to read up on the official statements before voicing your own thoughts.
* Windows Phone restrictions do not apply to Nokia as they have been given a free hand by Microsoft to tweak & customize Windows Phone, including the UI, in whatever way they want to. Nokia saying that they won’t do so is a different ball game all together, but for sure we’ll be seeing Nokia Pure on Nokia’s WP devices.

* “Logically enough, the starting point for our brand new typeface, Nokia Pure, was also on-screen legibility at small sizes – although now we’re talking about the pin-sharp colour screens of contemporary smartphones.”

* Fonts & Typeface is one of the integral components of any UI, and goes a long way in their efforts of upgrading the UI & UX they offer.
http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

There’s official statements, and then there’s actual execution. Nokia has been saying a lot over the past few years about their support for Symbian, how MeeGo was going to change the industry, and how they want to make Windows Phone competitive.

Let’s see, over the next 12 to 24 months, if we’ve been hearing more hot air or if it translates into something concrete that actually drives sales and bumps up the stock price.
http://www.yashmaheshwari.com Yash Maheshwari

In Re the Windows Phone short list of tweaks allowed is incorrect reporting for this situation. Those rules do not apply to Nokia. So even if you don’t believe that Nokia will use the Pure font on Win Ph, & I can’t understand why would you not see Nokia use it after spending shitloads on developing the font, you should still be mentioning the reality as it is. Not use a different set of conditions to imply your point.

What has Nokia said about their support for Symbian & not followed up with it? And their first Windows Phone device isn’t even out yet, so how are we supposed to make anything out of the make Windows Phone competitive statement?
MeeGo is the only mistake they made, give that to you.
http://twitter.com/jainrounak Rounak Jain

POC. How illogical linking the new font to Symbian-MeeGo-WP7.. If you want to disgrace Nokia, then find something that’s worth it.
http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

Throwing away an operating system that needed nothing more than a facelift in order to be competitive, throwing away years of research on an open source platform that could gained industry support had it been polished and actually released, becoming nothing more than a glorified ODM by licensing an operating system, those aren’t enough to disgrace Nokia?

What is?
San

Hi Yash this guy Stefan is paid to write against Nokia
http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

yep, Apple cuts me a check every month … my secret is out!