They’re using a different typeface for the legends:
I must say, I’m not impressed with the glyphs for symbols and punctuation, or the alignment of anything, on the new legends. I think they just pulled the same glyphs intended to be used in printed text, rather than customizing them to make sense in the context of keyboard legends, and as a result the stroke widths, glyph sizes, etc. are all over the map. The previous Apple laptop legend designs seem much more careful and consistent. I think these might actually be the least carefully done keycap legends on any Apple keyboard since the M0110. For all that some people here dislike like the Condensed Oblique Univers of the late 80s / early 90s, everything else about the legend design was done with careful attention to detail.
Using smaller outlined glyphs for the various functions like media controls, volume, brightness, etc. makes them all less distinguishable and less legible.
Interesting how they reversed the text alignment on the bottom row. I like the old one marginally better, but it’s not really a big deal.
I can’t imagine there’s any real positive advantage of the larger keytop size and reduced space between keys. The old ones seemed pretty reasonably sized/spaced, but I wouldn’t even mind slightly more space between keys than those, I think.
The bottom row, including the spacebar, seems to not be quite as wide as on the old keyboard. (Personally I think it would benefit by being an extra ~5 millimeters wider. An extra wide spacebar makes quite a nice improvement in typing comfort.
Extra long escape is kind of an interesting change. Might be nice, even though the trade-off is squeezing the F keys.
I’m definitely not a fan of the new left/right arrows. The little gaps in the old version are really helpful for locating the arrow cluster.
Overall a lot of this new design looks like it was rushed out by some interns.