PowerPoint

The last post highlighted the new default font, Aptos. There is also a new default color scheme!

The revision is subtle as you can see with the side-by-side comparison. The Standard Colors remain unchanged (unchanged since 1998 I believe!). I learned much of the color decisions the Microsoft team takes into consideration are for accessibility needs – and there is a lot of documentation and reason for each color selected. The formula for the color tints remains unchanged, and not accessible to users.

Here is a larger view of the color chips

In researching the previous color schemes for a comparison, I located color schemes for Office 2007-2010, then Office 2013-2022 and the new theme that is just labelled “Office Theme”. There is not a missing color scheme. The naming is based on the version number of PowerPoint, and we had no new version of PowerPoint between 2010 and 2013!

Troy @ TLC

PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook officially have a new default font.

Note: As of today I am not seeing the new font used when I open a blank presentation, on both desktop app and PowerPoint online, but it is coming! The Aptos font family is available in the font list, but not used as the default font when opening new, blank documents. Because the Aptos font has officially been announced and released, I think it will be rolled out to everyone within the next few weeks – assuming they are on a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Quick history of the default font in Microsoft Office apps:

• Times New Roman – default font until 2007
• Calibri – 2007 to 2023
• Aptos – 2023 to ??

From Si Daniels, a principal program manager at Microsoft, “Aptos is a part of a broader wave of features coming to Microsoft 365. We’re pushing to make the software more expressive and inclusive,” explains Daniels. “There’s a newly designed font picker experience, along with new themes, colors, and backgrounds.” More on these over the next few posts!

Other notable information about Aptos:

• It has 24 font types
• It is designed to work equally well for high-resolution display and print, from very small to very large
• It is designed for global use, supporting all major languages
• The process began several years ago when Microsoft started the replacement to Calibri by adding five new fonts in 2021; Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview
• Bierstadt and Aptos are the same font. In 2023 the Bierstadt font was renamed to Aptos, but the font in both names remains available
• 

I am excited by this font. The variety of font weights and sizes means a single font can be used throughout a presentation or document and provide visual variety, hierarchy and creativity.

-Troy @ TLC