Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, Times New Roman was synonymous with fonts in Microsoft Word and digital document editing as a whole. That changed in 2007 when Microsoft replaced Times New Roman with Calibri for the default font in Word. Could Calibri’s reign as the promoted font be about to change?
Microsoft has confirmed it has commissioned five new custom fonts for Microsoft Word. While you may be thinking fonts are added all the time but Calibri remains the default, Microsoft has some news for you.
The company says one of the five news fonts will replace Calibri as the default, at least “eventually”:
“[Calibri] has served us all well, but we believe it’s time to evolve,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
Many Word users may remember the evolution from Times New Roman to Calibri. Many of us simply weren’t ready for this seismic minor change and immediately switched back to the old font. Of course, Calibri’s charms eventually took hold, and this very article was brought to you by the font.
We need to talk. What should our next default font be? pic.twitter.com/fV9thfdAr4
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) April 28, 2021
User Choice
Microsoft wants to make the transition less of a shock to users this time, so the five new fonts are currently available to download, but none as the default in Word. They work across all Office apps too, not just Microsoft’s document editor.
This time, Microsoft is putting it in the hands of users. The company took to Twitter to urge Word users to provide feedback to help decide which of the new fonts will usurp Calibri:
“We’ll be evaluating these five directions over the next few months,” the company promises.
Microsoft’s five new fonts are: Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview. In the blog post, Microsoft waxes lyrical for paragraphs about each font. We’ll spare you those details here, but if you want to know more you can check out that original post at the source.
Tip of the day:
Did you know that as a Windows 10 admin you can restrict user accounts by disabling settings or the control panel? Our tutorial shows how to disable and enable them via Group Policy and the registry.
