Custom Variable Typeface for TikTok
TikTok’s font can stop impersonation before it starts.
Grilli Type spent a year building TikTok Sans, a variable typeface of roughly 700 glyphs. It includes anti-spoofing design work so that visually similar characters cannot be used to impersonate accounts, and was later released as open source.
Set in TikTok Sans
Insights
- TikTok Sans is not only branding: Grilli Type built anti-spoofing into the typeface so lookalike characters cannot be used to impersonate accounts, making typography part of platform security.
- Grilli Type spent roughly a year creating the variable typeface, which contains about 700 glyphs and was later released as open source, extending its impact beyond TikTok’s interface.
- Thierry Blanpain, co-founder of Grilli Type, explained the backlash to platform font changes: “Some people might feel a little unsettled… as if someone just moved around their living room furniture by a tiny bit.”
- Fast Company noted the familiar reaction to interface typography shifts with the headline “People are mad about TikTok’s (great) new font,” underscoring how even small visual changes can feel disruptive at platform scale.
- The open-source release involved Contrast Foundry and Maria Doreuli, pointing to additional Russian-language type design contributions inside the broader TikTok Sans rollout.
