Microsoft 365 has a new default font

This time last year, I posted about Microsoft’s plan to reveal a new default font to replace Calibri in Office — now known as Microsoft 365.

After much deliberation in a belated two-year process, the new font has finally been announced: Aptos.

Confusion may arise given Aptos was not one of the original five fonts commissioned as a possible successor to Calibri. However, its original name was Bierstadt, which translates to ‘Beer City’ in German. Perhaps the name change was necessary to also appeal to non-alcohol drinkers.

In a world where screen resolutions are much higher than in 2007 — when Times New Roman and Arial were the norm — it’s said this font displays better on 4K monitors, which are increasingly prevalent.

Perhaps LinkedIn could take note as well, given Aptos’s biggest plus point is we can now distinguish between an I and an l — that’s an uppercase ‘i’ and a lowercase ‘L’. The curly tail makes all the difference!

Will you be using the new font or remain loyal to Calibri? Or, perhaps some of you still haven’t moved on from Times New Roman. 😄