1 yr. ago • 95%

So long, Calibri: Microsoft has settled on a new font for its Office apps

arstechnica.com So long, Calibri: Microsoft has settled on a new font for its Office apps

Aptos is a sans-serif font that also comes in monospaced and serifed varieties.

Technology @beehaw.org So long, Calibri: Microsoft has settled on a new font for its Office apps

53 comments

Hmmm…almost exact 15 years after the 2007 MS design patent on Calibri (which had a duration of 15 years) they switch to a new, alternative Office-exclusive font for the next 15 years.

Only to be used ‘freely’ for personal use and again probibited to be bundled with, let’s say, other products like LibreOffice.

It’s all about lock-in and revenue, plain and simple. The same business strategy like Apple with the default San Francisco font and Adobe with the default Minion Pro font. I understand why they do it this way, I just don’t like it.

67
- aren't they all basically helvetica anyway?
  
  10
  
  GreatValue brand Helvetica. They muck up the lines and they look awful imo
  
  8
- Microsoft gonna Microsoft.
  
  6
(Insert old guy meme here) In my time we used Times New Roman. Then it went to Arial.

64
- Helvetica gang here
  
  21
  
  Verdana was my poison.
  
  11
  
  Never was included in MS Office, sadly
  
  8
- But Arial is Sans Serif and TNR is Serif, they serve different purpose.
  
  3
  
  Yes, but I'm talking about the 80s and begining of the 90s when common kids didn't know what the heck was a serif. I still remember when my university teacher showed us the difference.
  
  7
Aptos was created by Steve Matteson, who is also responsible for Windows 3.1's original TrueType fonts (including Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New) as well as Segoe, which has been Windows' default system font since Vista and is also used for Microsoft's current logo.

Fuckin' hell though. You gotta respect someone who's been in the game that long. And his one, single, sole job is fonts. That's dedication. Or maybe just a gravy train. But either way, dude has predicated an entire career on how letters look. Mad respect.

51
- Well when you put it that way. Fuck yeah. I agree.
  
  7
Is this maybe a ploy to date things again? I can't remember exactly what it was (I think it was in a Darknet Diaries episode) but there was a court case where a guy came in with a document proving something in his favour. It was a contract or letter from the other side of his case. They managed to prove it was fake because it was in Calibri, Office's default font, which hadn't even been invented back when the document was supposedly written.

25
- Amateur. Always use Times New Roman.
  
  On a serious note, it sounds like a transition to fonts that better support scaled 4K and up monitors.
  
  26
  
  Doubtful it's a technical decision. That font doesn't look any better than other fonts on hidpi.
  
  6
Should have kept the original name though.

"Bierstadt" would have been awesome!

25
- The confusion on pronunciation alone would have been worth it!
  
  17
  
  It’s Bierstadt like Ale town or Beer city. And yes, Bierstadt works in German and is a part of Wiesbaden.
  
  9
- They are not actually entirely identical. Bierstadt will be available in its original form, while the new font have a significantly wider spacing between characters.
  
  8
At first I thought there was something strange about the "s," but I couldn't put my finger on it. So I looked at the other fonts they considered and I realized I didn't like the "s" in those either. Then I looked at the font on the webpage and realized all "s"es look wrong to me.

I guess I just have to live this way now.

17
- WE'RE ALL LAMBS TO THE COSMIC SLAUGHTER
  
  3
- Don't you dare continue to spread that curse. I've started taking a slightly longer at the s'es Ive typed and I am not sure I like what I see.
  
  3
Friendship with Calibri ended. Aptos is my new best friend now. [insert related meme here]

12
Damn. I was hoping it would be Papyrus.

11
- But how would avatar 3 use it as a vaguely tribal and exotic suggesting font then
  
  3
@leo I feel like some of the other suggested fonts were a bit stronger contenders than Bierstadt, though admittedly the name is awesome.

I'll miss you, Calibri!

8
- Agreed on the name.
  
  As for the others, I’m a fan of Tenorite. Squattier than the rest, but it has the most “character”
  
  5
  
  I like the friendlier feeling of Seaford (the o shapes have a little tilt to them rather than being straight on the grid), but I’m guessing they leaned towards the most “generic” of the five because as a default font you want it to become “invisible” almost. I think a more unique font would stand out and then become a little grating over time given how much it would be seen.
  
  2
Never will we come back to the glory of Courier New

7
I was...expecting something better than Calibri, but this new font is decidedly less versatile and pleasant to the eye IMHO.

6
But... I like Calibri... 🙁

4
- Too bad you are forever doomed to using Aptos since it’s impossible to change fonts.
  
  24
  
  I am, tho'. If it's the new standard Windows font, it's going to become the new standard communication font at work.
  
  -4
- Permanently Deleted
  
  14
  
  I get so many emails sent to me incorrectly because of that.
  
  5
- I really liked the squircled I dots.
  
  5
I havent't read the article yet, but I hope they fixed the subpar rendering for general use, because Bierstadt looked terrible in general desktop apps. In fact, none of the proposed typefaces rendered well under native Windows ClearType.

4
🕈︎✋︎☠︎☝︎👎︎✋︎☠︎☝︎💧︎ ☝︎✌︎☠︎☝︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎ ●︎♓︎♐︎♏︎📬︎

3
Calibri is honestly a great font. Easy on the eyes and easy to read.

3
Book Antiqua gang rise up!

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error loading comment

2
Is there a good design comm here yet?

1
Arial or bust

1
It’s too late, Nawaz Sharif was already impeached.

1
Who has libre office, all fonts you can imagine plus a few hundred and doesn't care? Actually, I write my stuff in neovim, mostly, some special cases still need a word processor of some kind.

-2
- This is the way. I like neovim too.
  
  1

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