Edit - Cliff notes: Basically I'm saying that that since the main system font has been thickened, it doesn't match up with the rest of the design. I feel like a lot of thought was put into iOS 7 for it to have a thin linear aesthetic (with super thin lines, wireframe-like icons, etc.) However, now that the default font has been changed but nothing else, it feels like the orignal design philosophy has been undermined, and Apple is in quite a predicament.
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The purpose of large type being very thin and smaller type being thicker was to give the type a consistent feel. For example, the time on the lock screen is in Helvetica Neue Ultra Light, but because it's so large, it's roughly the same thickness as the type underneath it.
Let me use the Weather app to illustrate. In the first image is how the weather looks in beta 1 and 2. You can see that the weights look consistent with each other. The second picture is what we have in beta 3. Apple chose to increase all instances of Helvetica Neue Light to Helvetica Neue Regular, however, left any instances of Helvetica Neue Ultra Light untouched. Now the word Cupertino looks too heavy, and not as good as before. If they wanted to increase the size weight of one font, they should have cascaded that effect down through the rest of the system. For example, the third image have the temperature weight stepped up one notch to Helvetica Neue Thin.
The problem is that Dynamic Type only applies to certain type. If it was to expand to all text, I think this problem would be easy to remedy. Also, it could give users varying levels of options for how bold they want their type, without ruining the aesthetic of the typography. It would be nice to let users choose either the first option, the third, or an even bolder option. I never liked how the Bold Text option affected only some of the text making it look inconsistent, and now I'm concerned that these inconsistencies are present even in the default state.
Let's look at the iconography used in iOS7. If you watched the videos on what's new in iOS design, you probably remeber that the icons were drawn to match the weight of the system font. The lines were made to have the same thickness as Helvetica Neue Light. Let's look at how the icons used to be:
You can see pretty clearly how the icons have the same thickness as the text. The next pictures shows how the icons look next to the heavier font from beta 3:
You can bet the designers at Apple are not happy about this, considering that they designed the icons specifically to be used with the default font, they probably won't ignore that. I doubt this will be how the final product looks.
Now here are the changes I made to the icons to match the weight of the heavier font in beta 3:
After thinking about this, I can't see how Apple will keep the designs the way they are. I think they are planning to expand Dynamic Type to all text and even to their icons. That would explain why the icons are mostly all liner in appearance. A lot of people seem to like the change from Helvetica Neue Light to Roman, however, if this is all that Apple changes with the text, iOS7 will have lost its entire philosophy regarding typography and iconography.
I'm very interested to see how Apple resolves this problem, because I don't see any way to do so without them having to make the font changes cascade through the system.
--------------
The purpose of large type being very thin and smaller type being thicker was to give the type a consistent feel. For example, the time on the lock screen is in Helvetica Neue Ultra Light, but because it's so large, it's roughly the same thickness as the type underneath it.
Let me use the Weather app to illustrate. In the first image is how the weather looks in beta 1 and 2. You can see that the weights look consistent with each other. The second picture is what we have in beta 3. Apple chose to increase all instances of Helvetica Neue Light to Helvetica Neue Regular, however, left any instances of Helvetica Neue Ultra Light untouched. Now the word Cupertino looks too heavy, and not as good as before. If they wanted to increase the size weight of one font, they should have cascaded that effect down through the rest of the system. For example, the third image have the temperature weight stepped up one notch to Helvetica Neue Thin.
The problem is that Dynamic Type only applies to certain type. If it was to expand to all text, I think this problem would be easy to remedy. Also, it could give users varying levels of options for how bold they want their type, without ruining the aesthetic of the typography. It would be nice to let users choose either the first option, the third, or an even bolder option. I never liked how the Bold Text option affected only some of the text making it look inconsistent, and now I'm concerned that these inconsistencies are present even in the default state.
Let's look at the iconography used in iOS7. If you watched the videos on what's new in iOS design, you probably remeber that the icons were drawn to match the weight of the system font. The lines were made to have the same thickness as Helvetica Neue Light. Let's look at how the icons used to be:
You can see pretty clearly how the icons have the same thickness as the text. The next pictures shows how the icons look next to the heavier font from beta 3:
You can bet the designers at Apple are not happy about this, considering that they designed the icons specifically to be used with the default font, they probably won't ignore that. I doubt this will be how the final product looks.
Now here are the changes I made to the icons to match the weight of the heavier font in beta 3:
After thinking about this, I can't see how Apple will keep the designs the way they are. I think they are planning to expand Dynamic Type to all text and even to their icons. That would explain why the icons are mostly all liner in appearance. A lot of people seem to like the change from Helvetica Neue Light to Roman, however, if this is all that Apple changes with the text, iOS7 will have lost its entire philosophy regarding typography and iconography.
I'm very interested to see how Apple resolves this problem, because I don't see any way to do so without them having to make the font changes cascade through the system.
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