What's the font in Mac OS X's GUI?

Question

What is the font that's used in Mac OS X's graphical user interface (GUI), in the menus, dialog boxes, etc.? Is it different from what was used in the classic Mac OS (i.e. OS 9 or older)? If so, what are the fonts back then? I like the font but never knew what it was. Thanks.

Answer 1

The font you see in most places on Mac OS X is Lucida Grande, it is the system font in OS X 10.1 Puma to 10.9 Mavericks. Mac OS 1-7 used Chicago, then Mac OS 8 and 9 used Charcoal.

The most recent additions are Helvetica Neue (OS X 10.10 Yosemite) and San Francisco (OS X 10.11 El Capitan through Mojave)

Answer 2

The font used from Mac OS X is "Lucida Grande"; in Mac OS 8 and 9, the font used for menus and window title was "Charcoal," but it could be changed from the preference panel.

From System 1 up to 7.6 the default GUI font was Chicago.

Answer 3

Since the release of OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) in 2014 the Mac system typeface family is San Francisco.

Type Detail's page on San Francisco

San Francisco is also used in iOS, WatchOS, and tvOS.

Answer 4

Apple is ditching Lucida Grande with its next iteration of OS X, which will now use Helvetica Neue as the default system font on OS X Yosemite.

Answer 5

Sorry but In my computer I would say that it is Apple Symbols. At least that is what the microsoft office says and it looks quite similar...