• Reading Importance and Font Impact: Reading is seen as a “magical technology” close to inventing telepathy. Bill Hill, an inventor of Microsoft’s ClearType font display technology, emphasized how writing systems, through scratched marks representing sounds, meanings, and ideas, enable communication across time and space and reflect culture and identity. When choosing a default font for Microsoft 365, considering these aspects was crucial as the new font would represent the company’s voice and brand.
• Co-creating Typefaces Process: Five leading typeface designers developed five candidate font families. They added these as options in Microsoft 365 apps and let customer feedback decide. The goal was to create a new original sans serif typeface family with six styles and companion serif and monospace families.
• Sans Serif vs. Serif: Sans serif typefaces were introduced in the 19th century for advertising. Serif typefaces had evolved over 300 years. The first sans serif typefaces were heavy and mainly capital letters. Later, they became lighter and suitable for short texts. Some saw sans serif as dehumanizing initially but it later served various purposes. Designing a new sans serif for Microsoft 365 aimed to balance past influences with present and future expectations.
• Designing Aptos: Steve Matteson, creator of Aptos (formerly Bierstadt), aimed to make it stand out by adding humanist flair. He looked at Arial and tried to make Aptos “quirkier” while keeping it usable in multiple languages and tones. He incorporated slightly irregular shapes and gave certain letters distinct features to enhance readability.
• Default Font History: In early Microsoft word processing, Word used Times New Roman and PowerPoint/Excel used Arial. Later, Calibri became the default font in Word on Windows, changing the typography landscape. A sans serif was chosen as it was more adaptable and reliable than Times New Roman. Monospace and serif companion fonts were created for the default candidates.
• Serif and Monospace Fonts: Complementary serif and monospace fonts were made to allow easy switching between serif and sans serif. Dimensions of fonts affect their appearance, so a consistent family was created.
• Making Aptos Suit Different Apps: Designing Aptos for various Microsoft 365 apps involved rounds of ideation and iteration. It had to balance consistency and adaptability, working well in spreadsheets, editorial platforms, etc., and accommodating different languages.
• Steve Matteson’s Background: Steve is a renowned type designer with over three decades of work. His early work involved engineering digital fonts. He draws inspiration from various sources and has designed notable fonts like Microsoft’s Segoe UI. Aptos is optimized for digital reading and print.
• Co-designing with Customers: The co-design process with customers has been insightful. Aptos and other default font contenders are now available, giving users more font choices.