Microsoft introduced right this moment that it’s changing its present default font, Calibri, with a extra trendy successor referred to as Aptos.
“For 15 years, our beloved Calibri was Microsoft’s default font and crown keeper of workplace communications, however our relationship has come to a pure finish,” Microsoft principal program supervisor Si Daniels writes within the announcement publish. ” We modified. The expertise we use every single day has modified. And so, our seek for the right font for higher-resolution screens started. The font wanted to have sharpness, uniformity, and be nice for show kind. It was thrilling at instances, but in addition intimidating.”
Microsoft began its seek for a brand new font over two years in the past when it commissioned 5 new fonts—Bierstadt, Grandview, Seaford, Skeena, and Tenorite—with the purpose of choosing a brand new font for Microsoft 365. It added these fonts to the drop-down font picker within the Microsoft Workplace apps, listened to suggestions, and selected the one which resonated most. And that font was … Bierstadt. Which Microsoft has renamed to Aptos for some purpose. (Perhaps as a result of “Bierstadt” means “beer city”.)
Aptos will begin showing because the default font within the major Workplace apps—Phrase, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel—right this moment and can roll out to be the default for all clients within the coming months. Aptos is what’s referred to as a sans serif font, and as that time period suggests, it comes “sans serif,” or with out ornamental traces or tapers. It’s trendy, simply readable, and has easy letterforms and even strokes.
And for you followers of the opposite 4 contenders, no worries: Microsoft is preserving Grandview, Seaford, Skeena, and Tenorite within the font picker, as is Calibri, which might be pinned to the highest close to its predecessors, Instances New Roman and Arial.
Microsoft additionally hinted at some future design modifications.
“Aptos is a part of a broader wave of options coming to Microsoft 365,” Daniel added. “We’re pushing to make the software program extra expressive and inclusive. There’s a newly designed font picker expertise, together with new themes, colours, and backgrounds. These updates signify our devotion to those that use M365 the identical approach a mechanic does a toolbox, or an artist does a paintbrush.”
