14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced that it plans to replace Calibri as the default font in Microsoft Office, and now the company wants users to choose its successor in the productivity suite.
In other words, users are allowed to vote for the next default font in Microsoft Office, and the Redmond-based software giant proposes five different versions called Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview.
The good news is that Calibri just wouldn’t go away, as it’ll remain a part of Microsoft Office going forward. So while Microsoft Office will come with a new default font, Calibri will still be available in the productivity suite.
“Calibri has been the default font for all things Microsoft since 2007, when it stepped in to replace Times New Roman across Microsoft Office. It has served us all well, but we believe it’s time to evolve. To help us set a new direction, we’ve commissioned five original, custom fonts to eventually replace Calibri as the default,” the Redmond-based software giant explains.
A new default font likely by the end of the year
While you can see the new proposed fonts in the picture here, Microsoft a lot of effort has been put into creating them and getting them ready for Microsoft Office.
Tenorite, for example, which has been created by Erin McLaughlin and Wei Huang, is said to be a good choice for small sizes.
“Tenorite has the overall look of a traditional workhorse sans serif (a font without a serif, or a stroke at the ends, like Times New Roman), but with a warmer, more friendly style. Elements such as large dots, accents, and punctuation make Tenorite comfortable to read at small sizes onscreen, and crisp-looking shapes and wide characters create a generally open feeling,” Microsoft explains.
Microsoft hasn’t announced an ETA as to when the new default font would be chosen, but the company says it’ll look into feedback over the next few months.