Font Friday #150

PT Root UI (free font)

PT Root Ul feels very sober and functional. The sans-serif typeface pt Root UI on a mobile phone in th heading, navigation, body text and a big, pull quote saying: "It's me, hi! I'm the problem. It's me." — Chaitra sent me this piece of a Tailor Swift song. It's stuck with me now!

Sans-serif typeface

from ParaType
designed by Vitaly Kuzmin

Variable Font

1 axis: Weight

4 Styles

4 Weights: Light to Bold

Additional Scripts

Cyrillic

Best for

  • Headings (display text)
  • Long reading text (body text)
  • User Interfaces (functional text)

License

Free

Specialty

A clean, funtional uniwidth sans-serif typeface made for UI and web design.

Get PT Root UI

My PT Root UI Font Review

The free sans-serif typeface PT Root UI is – as the name suggests – made for user interface design. It has very even strokes, is compact and comes a cross as quite mechanical, clean almost sober. PT Root UI reminds me of DIN 1451, but it’s softer and without the quirks. And the typeface is very light, in my opinion, when compared to other fonts like Inter here.

This is PT Root UI When comparing PT Root Ul with Inter for small text, you see that the Regular weight seems very light. Maybe a bit too light? Even in Medium, PT Root Ul has less contrast than other fonts, while overall it appears stricter, more technical and sober.
PT Root UI is quite light and seems technical
This is Inter When comparing PT Root Ul with Inter for small text, you see that the Regular weight seems very light. Maybe a bit too light? Even in Medium, PT Root Ul has less contrast than other fonts, while overall it appears stricter, more technical and sober.
Inter looks is sturdier and seems softer

A nice feature of PT Root UI is that it’s a uniwidth design. This means each character, regardless of the weight, takes up the same amount of horizontal space. So when you make something bold, it will not create any reflow in your web design or UI.

Various weights. Same width.
From PT Root UI Light to Bold, all weights share the same width.

This gives you additional possibilities. You could change the weight in hover or focus states without jumping text or misalignment. How much better this looks in comparison with Inter, you can see here on Patreon.

See how PT Root UI outperforms Inter. Unlock on Patreon

What I also appreciate about PT Root UI is that it has quite some interesting stylistic alternates, that can shift the mood of the typeface into something totally different.

I know good alternates. From Double story to single story “a“ and “g”, upper case “I“ with serifs and the “k” with a horizontal bar.
By activating the stylistic alternates, you can give PT Root UI a different flavor

Since this typeface is made for small text, also in regards of the loose spacing, i would not use it for a lot of body text and either pick PT Root as a companion or one of my recommendations.

Font Pairings for PT Root UI

PT Root UI is a rational, linear sans-serif typeface. It pairs well with something contrasting like serif typeface Rasa, but also quite similar Mona Sans would work fine.

PT Root UI (free)
PT Root UI (free)
  • Copy
  • UI Text
Humane (free)
Humane (free)
  • Headings
Ojuju (free)
Ojuju (free)
  • Headings
Rasa (free)
Rasa (free)
  • Headings
  • Copy
Mona & Hubot Sans (free)
Mona & Hubot Sans (free)
  • Headings
  • Copy
  • UI Text

Learn more about pairing typefaces using the Font Matrix.

Many thanks to Quirico for bringing this typeface to my attention. If you spot a font that I should review, tell me in the comments!

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Edition #150, published

3 Comments

    2. Of course, has become quite visible as it is the serif in use on the OpenAI site, alongside Söhne from Klim also.

      Reply

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