Social media giant TikTok has formally introduced a new typeface, which it’s dubbed ‘TikTok Sans’ in a blog post. At first glance the font looks fairly similar to the previous one, Proxima Nova. The changes, which were made in collaboration with Grilli Type, are subtle but become noticeable upon closer inspection.

“TikTok Sans represents our commitment to meaningful innovation as we continuously aim to improve the user experience by optimizing legibility and reading retention, along with providing multi-language font support for our global community,” the company says.

The proprietary font benefits from simplification, enhanced readability, multi-language support, and built-in security features, according to TikTok.

The enhanced security is a noteworthy addition — username spoofing will hopefully be less of an issue going forward. The font provides stylistic choices that make distinguishing similar-looking letters and numbers an easier task. For example, the number “0” now looks visually distinct from the letter “o,” thanks to the slash added through the former.

The font is rolling out in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Indonesian, Turkish and Vietnamese to start with. The company says it plans to add more languages over time.

TikTok joins a growing list of companies with their own in-house font systems. Google, Apple, Samsung, and many others have all adopted unique typefaces to complement their associated brand image.

Source: TikTok