Calibri was the default font in Microsoft Office applications. Microsoft announced this week that it is going to replace Calibri with Aptos. Aptos was formerly known as Bierstadt, one of the five fonts that Microsoft commissioned
back in 2021 as the potential replacement font for Calibri.
Calibri replaced Times New Roman as the default font in Microsoft Office in 2007. Microsoft described Bierstadt in the following way in 2021: "Bierstadt is a precise, contemporary sans serif typeface inspired by mid-20th-century Swiss typography. A versatile typeface that expresses simplicity and rationality in a highly readable form, Bierstadt is also notably clear-cut with stroke endings that emphasize order and restraint."
Microsoft had several intentions regarding Calibri's replacement. Besides improving the display of text on monitors with high resolutions, the fonts were all designed to be available via the cloud across Microsoft 365 apps.
Microsoft added all five fonts to the drop-down font picker of Microsoft 365 and asked for user feedback.
A Microsoft Design post on
Medium by Si Daniels confirms that Aptos is the new default Microsoft 365 font. It was the font that "resonated most" according to Microsoft. The designer of the font, Steve Matteson, renamed Bierstadt to Aptos "after his favorite unincorporated town in Santa Cruz, California, whose widely ranging landscape and climate epitomizes the font’s versatility".
Aptos will start to appear as the default font in Microsoft Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel for hundreds of millions of users. Microsoft plans to roll out the change over the course of several months.
Aptos is a sans serif, which means it is "easily readable" and "bold, well-defined, directive, and constrained" according to Microsoft.
Microsoft 365 users may continue to use Calibri, if they prefer to do so, as the font remains available. Users who want to keep Calibri as the default font, or any other font that is available,
may consult Microsoft's support website for instructions on doing so.
