# Roboto

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/roboto/

11 people recommended Roboto in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 12 months, in 7 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a dependable, broad sans-serif family for web text and code, with many font weights and a good emoji pack. Some find it generic or hard to read at small sizes.

Summary written by Claude from 9 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Dependable, broad sans-serif family (3 comments in the sample): "Unlike Roboto which continues to be great for that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46250508)) "the industrial fonts like Roboto are not that bad" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131739)) "the wide and glorious world of Roboto" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46226973))
- Nicely shaped monospace variant (2 comments in the sample): "or Roboto Mono just seem to work much better for my tired eyes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50088996)) "Roboto Mono is nicely shaped but blurry." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47709854))
- Long-time go-to for web text (1 comment in the sample): "I like it a bit better than Robot Sans, which has been my go to for web content for about a decade." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46446661))

## What people warn about

- Blurry or hard to read (1 comment in the sample): "the roboto felt nigh-unreadable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342549))

## Other typefaces people recommend

- [Times New Roman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/times-new-roman/): 24 recommend, 10 mixed, 25 criticize
- [Atkinson Hyperlegible](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atkinson-hyperlegible/): 22 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize
- [Shantell Sans](https://hackerapproved.com/p/shantell-sans/): 19 recommend, 0 mixed, 1 criticize
- [Avería font](https://hackerapproved.com/p/aver-a-the-average-font/): 14 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Roboto", https://hackerapproved.com/p/roboto/ (11 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.