The birth of Inter | Figma Blog
Inter began as Rasmus Andersson’s attempt to solve a practical problem at Figma: Roboto was difficult to read at the small sizes common in user interfaces. Designed specifically for computer screens and released as open source in 2017, Inter evolved from a limited Latin character set into a long-term typeface project adopted by organizations including GitHub and Mozilla. Andersson’s experience also illustrates that building a complete type family—especially across many writing systems—is a project measured in years, not months. ## Why Inter Was Created - Figma had used Google’s Roboto as its primary typeface. - Roboto worked for both headings and body text, but its small-size readability was inadequate for Figma’s text-heavy interface. - A month-long research project still identified Roboto as the best available option, prompting Andersson to design a new alternative himself. - Inter was intended exclusively for computer user interfaces and was offered freely to the public. ## A Typeface Project Larger Than Expected - Andersson had only limited prior experience, mostly with hobby and display typefaces. - He initially estimated the project would take about a year. - He later realized that fully developing Inter could require five to ten years of continued work. - A complete typeface family must account for more than 150 recognized writing systems, each with different letterforms, spacing conventions, and structural requirements. ## Starting with Latin Characters - Andersson began with the Latin script because it was the system he knew best. - Within the first year, Inter covered roughly 200 of the most common Latin characters. - Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hangul, and other scripts were recognized as substantially more complex extensions rather than simple additions. ## Using Roboto as a Foundation - To expand Inter quickly, Andersson initially borrowed Cyrillic and many Greek glyphs from Roboto. - This led to Inter being dual licensed during that period. - Over time, he recreated the borrowed characters individually so they matched Inter’s visual style. - Roboto’s relationship between lowercase height and capital-letter height was especially useful as a design reference. ## Proportions for Screen Readability - Andersson examined the proportion between a lowercase letter’s x-height and the height of capital letters. - Roboto’s balance was similar to that found in typefaces such as Apple’s San Francisco, Akkurat, Graphik, Aeonik, and Helvetica. - These proportions had become common in modern grotesque typefaces because they remained effective and readable across interface contexts. Inter’s development demonstrates that successful UI typography depends on deliberate choices about scale, proportions, glyph coverage, and long-term iteration. For teams designing text-heavy software, a typeface optimized specifically for screen use can be more valuable than a general-purpose font, but building one requires substantial ongoing work.
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