Typography
Engineered, calm and readable
Type carries most of what we say. Ours is precise without being cold: a modern grotesque with generous spacing, set mostly in sentence case.
Primary typeface
Get to know Helvetica Now
Helvetica Now is a 2019 redraw of the classic Helvetica, with separate optical sizes. We use two of them.
- Helvetica Now Display for headlines, numbers and anything 20px and above. Tighter spacing, finer details.
- Helvetica Now Text for body copy, UI and anything below 20px. Wider spacing, sturdier shapes, better at small sizes.
It is a licensed font (Monotype). North staff can request a desktop licence from the brand team.
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Specimen
NorthStar is a local-first agentic operating system for sensitive work. Your data lives on the machine. AI runs on models your organisation hosts, or on cloud models when policy allows. A named human stays accountable for every AI action.
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Weights
Arabic typeface
IBM Plex Sans Arabic
North works in English and Arabic. For Arabic script we use IBM Plex Sans Arabic: a clear, contemporary Naskh-influenced sans with a matching rhythm to Helvetica Now. It is free (SIL Open Font License) on Google Fonts.
- Set Arabic about 10% larger than Latin at the same role, so x-heights feel equal.
- Give Arabic body text more line height: 1.7 instead of 1.55.
- Never apply letter-spacing or uppercase rules to Arabic.
- Product names stay in Latin script inside Arabic copy: NorthStar, not نورث ستار.
English
Sovereign intelligence you can steer by.
Your data stays on your machine.
العربية
ذكاء سيادي يمكنك الاهتداء به.
تبقى بياناتك على جهازك مع NorthStar.
Type scale
Our text styles are design tokens, so the same names work in Figma, CSS and Office. Sizes follow a 1.25 ratio from 16px, rounded to whole pixels. Sample sizes shrink on small screens; the specs do not.
Campaign heroes, title slides. One per layout.
Landing-page heroes.
Page titles.
Section titles.
Sub-sections, card titles.
Small headings, list titles.
Intro paragraphs under a title.
Marketing body copy.
Default body and UI copy.
Dense UI, tables, secondary copy.
Captions and legal. Smallest permitted size on screen.
Navigation groups and data labels only — echoes the uppercase wordmark. Never above every heading.
Code blocks, CLI, token names.
Type tester
Emphasis
Change the weight, not the colour
Our logos separate brand and product with weight: Bold, then Regular. Do the same in headlines. When something deserves emphasis, set it in a heavier weight or on its own line.
- Emphasise a word or short phrase, never a whole sentence.
- One emphasis per headline.
- Keep emphasis on one line.
- Avoid colour highlights in headlines; colour is for links, actions and data.
Your desk. Your data. Your models.
Display Light with Display Bold for the payoff.
Text alignment
Left by default
Left-aligned (right-aligned in Arabic) is the default for almost everything: it gives a strong edge to read from. Centre short, punchy lines in hero moments, posters and closing slides. Never justify text: it creates rivers of space, especially in narrow columns.
Default
A clear edge to read from, line after line.
Hero moments
Thank you.
Readability
| Context | Minimum | Comfortable |
|---|---|---|
| Screen body copy | 14px (UI) / 16px (reading) | 16–18px |
| Screen captions and legal | 12px | 13–14px |
| Slides (1920×1080) | 18pt body | 24pt+ body, 40pt+ titles |
| Print body copy | 9pt | 10.5–11pt |
| Print legal | 7pt | 8pt |
| Line length | 45 characters | 60–75 characters (max 80) |
Write headings and buttons in sentence case. Use all caps only for the short navigation labels in this hub and data labels in charts, always tracked at +0.1em.
Numbers and data
Lead with the number
Big numbers are set in Helvetica Now Display ExtraBold with tight tracking (−0.05em) and a short line of context below in Display Medium. In tables and UI, use tabular figures (font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums) so columns line up.
15 min
How often NorthStar checks its licence with NorthStar Admiral Server.
Special fonts
Fallbacks and code
Where Helvetica Now isn't available (shared Office documents, email, partner systems), use Arial. Our token stacks fall back automatically: Helvetica Now → Helvetica Neue → Arial.
Code, CLI and IDs use JetBrains Mono Regular (free, SIL OFL). Use it only for literal code, commands, token names and identifiers, never for labels or decoration.
$ northstar-admiral smoke-test --model on-prem/llama
✓ gateway reachable (42 ms)
✓ licence valid until 2027-03-01
✓ residency gate on-premises onlyDos and don'ts
Do
- Use Display for 20px and up, Text below.
- Write headlines and buttons in sentence case.
- Emphasise with weight, once per headline.
- Use the type tokens so sizes stay consistent.
- Use IBM Plex Sans Arabic for Arabic, mirrored layouts for RTL.
Don't
- Set text below the minimum sizes.
- Use other typefaces, condensed or outlined styles.
- Track out lowercase text, or add letter-spacing to Arabic.
- Use colour highlights in headlines.
- Justify text.
Last updated on 14 October 2026