

“To pinpoint the kind of familiarity and “comfort” the typeface should evoke, we also looked at pictures of old armchairs … nothing overtly plushy or nostalgic”,Stössinger says. Seaford,by Tobias Frere-Jones, Nina Stössinger, and Fred Shallcrass, is “gently organic and asymmetric”, but should be useful for forms as the differences between letters should make recognisable word shapes

That contrast is usually associated with luxury branding, which work in large type but can be “unsightly and … brittle” if too small. Skeena, by John Hudson and Paul Hanslow, is a “humanist” sans serif font with modulated strokes and a noticeable contrast between thick and thin lines, apparently making it ideal for body text in long documents. “The terminal endings are precisely sheared at 90 degrees-a modern note contrasting the softer, angled endings in Arial-and a lack of somewhat fussy curves found in Arial’s ‘a’, ‘f’, ‘y’ and ‘r’.” “Microsoft already has Arial-which has many attributes from grotesque types preceding Helvetica-and my approach was to design a sans serif which would contrast with Arial by being far more mechanical and rationalized,” Matteson says. It has large, block-style letters with little flourishes or contrast between thick and thin strokes. Its tight fit apparently allow for more words to fit on a line yet has “generous character spacing”.īierstadt, by Steve Matteson, is inspired by mid-20th century Swiss typography. It has been designed to be legible at a distance and under poor conditions, so it would work well for long-form reading.Īll five fonts are available via the cloud across Microsoft 365 apps and experiences, so you can begin using them before choosing a favorite.Tenorite, by Erin McLaughlin and Wei Huang, “has the overall look of a traditional workhorse sans serif”, and is round, wide, and crisp, according to the designers. Lastly, Grandview’s origins are interesting, as the sans-serif typeface is derived from classic German road and railway signage. Its asymmetric forms make the differences between letters quite clear, creating more recognizable word shapes. Seaford is rooted in old-style serif text typefaces, which makes it feel familiar. Next, Bierstadt is inspired by mid-20th-century Swiss typography and is notably clear-cut with, as Microsoft explains, “stroke endings that emphasize order and restraint.” Skeena, on the other hand, is a “humanist” sans-serif based on the shapes of traditional serif text typefaces, with contrast between thick and thin. Microsoft says other elements of the font, like accents and punctuation marks, make Tenorite comfortable to read at small sizes, like on your phone. Tenorite has the look of a traditional sans serif (a font without a serif, or a stroke at the ends), but with a friendlier style. The new fonts span the various sans-serif styles - humanist, geometric, Swiss-style and industrial.īefore you let Microsoft know which one is your favorite, take a look at each font’s characteristics. Microsoft says the creators of the five fonts took into consideration the modern devices we use and the accessibility implications across languages. The new fonts that are in the running to become the default font are called Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford and Grandview. While one of the new fonts will be chosen as the default, Calibri will still be available for you to use if you don’t like the new default. What should our next default font be? /fV9thfdAr4 To help choose the new font, Microsoft is asking users to head over to Twitter and tell them which one is their favorite. This year, however, Microsoft decided it’s time for a change and commissioned five independent designers to create custom fonts, one of which will replace Calibri in 2022. In fact, if you have a favorite font you always use in your documents, you may not even know the default font is currently Calibri and has been since 2007 (when it replaced Times New Roman). While you’ve likely spent time using Microsoft Office programs like Word and Excel, chances are you haven’t paid much attention to the default font used on these programs.
