Millions Affected by Microsoft Word’s Subtle Typeface Switch: Did You Catch It?

When reading — a book, a traffic sign, a billboard, this article — do you really notice the letters? Most people probably don’t.

But even if you don’t consciously notice them, you might sense a subtle change. That’s the feeling some have had recently when using Microsoft Word.

After 17 years of Calibri as Word’s default typeface, users now find themselves typing in a new typeface called Aptos. This change also affects PowerPoint, Outlook, and Excel.

For designers and typography fans, letters matter a lot.

Why the change?

“We wanted to bring something new and fresh designed natively for the modern era of computing,” said Jon Friedman, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for design and research.

(Technically, Aptos and Calibri are typefaces, and a “font” refers to a specific face or size, like italics or boldface. In practice, “font” is often used as a synonym for “typeface.”)

In the world of typefaces, there is a big divide between serif and sans serif. Calibri and Aptos are sans serif typefaces, but Aptos has something extra.

Centuries ago, most typefaces had serifs. Sans serif fonts were bold and easily legible from far, meant for billboards. Aptos is a “neo-grotesque” font.

As for Aptos, it aims to be quirky and whimsical, with slight imperfections to add humanity. The lowercase “l” has a curve in Aptos, unlike most sans serif fonts.

In Aptos, the capital “I” and lowercase “l” have slight differences to enhance readability. Aptos aims to blend serif font qualities with a sans serif style.

Above the lowercase i’s and j’s in Aptos are circular dots, different from Calibri’s square dots.

Designing a font requires deep thinking and creativity. Aptos is Microsoft’s trademarked intellectual property.

People tend to notice font changes, even if they don’t actively care. Some social media users complained about the new font, while others liked it.

Change can bring protest, but familiarity eventually sets in. To change from Aptos, set your font to default.

The New York Times is keeping its color.

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