Microsoft Office apps get new default Aptos font and themes

• Office apps will receive an update with new default font and themes. 
• The new Aptos font will replace the Calibri font on apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• The update will also introduce new themes with new color schemes, styles, and outlines.
• The new changes are expected to arrive in September 2023.

Microsoft plans to roll out a few important changes for its suite of Office apps, including a new default font and themes. The new update is expected to arrive sometime in September as students gear up to start the new school year.

After over a decade, the suite of Office apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint) is slated to change its default “Calibri” font family with the new “Aptos” font family, which the company has been developing since 2021. Aptos brings consistency improvements for lines and shapes, more selections of font weights, and accessibility as it makes it easy to read for people with visual challenges. The font will also be accompanied by new default styles and color palettes.

The new font was created by Steve Matteson, the person responsible for the “Segoe” and “Calibri” family fonts available on Windows 11 and older versions.

As part of this new wave of changes, the software giant also plans to introduce new themes with new color schemes, styles and outlines to enhance contrast and improve document readability. Users will also notice that the update will replace the yellow theme with a new dark green and light blue for a dark teal theme.

Furthermore, in Outlook and Microsoft Word, the update will introduce changes to the styles to give the apps a more modern and professional design. For example, paragraphs will add more spacing, and headings will feature different sizes of boldness and larger fonts.

Microsoft is expected to make these improvements available at some point in September for every Microsoft 365 subscriber. However, some participants of the Microsoft 365 Insider program are already able to test the new font and themes ahead of the official release.