The new default Office font is now available for Microsoft 365 Insiders

Last week, Microsoft unveiled a new default font for Office apps, Aptos, to replace the 13-year Calibri introduced with the Office 2007 suite. However, Microsoft has to test the new font and updated styling before shipping them to all Office users.

Aptos, a new color palette, style, and line weights, are now available for Microsoft 365 Insiders to test on Windows, macOS, and Android, with iOS to follow soon.

Before introducing Aptos, Microsoft asked customers to vote for a new font to replace the good-old Calibri. Five new variants included Bierstadt, Grandview, Seaford, Skeena, and Tenorite.

Users have picked Bierstadt, Microsoft renamed it Aptos, and now it is ready for testing in the Microsoft 365 Insider program.

Aptos has various weights: light, regular, semibold, bold, extra bold, and black, with all six variants supporting italics. Although Office apps now use Aptos by default, customers can still access Calibri in the fonts drop-down menu.

Microsoft's latest insider update has not only introduced a new font, but also other cosmetic changes. It includes new default styles with improved readability, navigation, and "more professional" looks.

There is also a new set of default colors for backgrounds, accents, and hyperlinks. Microsoft says it researched popular color palettes and design trends to create a solid set of colors to work and look well in all Office apps and help users create more accessible content.

Finally, Microsoft increased the default outline weights to keep them consistent with shapes and lines and provide better contrast.

Microsoft Office apps will automatically change to the new visual defaults without any action from the customer. However, this does not apply to existing documents—they will keep the original theme applied upon creation.

Finally, Microsoft highlights that users have full control over visuals, and they can revert to the previous Office theme (2013-2022), set Calibri or another font as default, or use the Word 2013 scheme for document formatting.

The updated visuals are now available for Microsoft 365 Insiders on Windows (version 2308, build 16701.20000), macOS (version 16.76, build 23070400, and Android (version 16.0.16701.20000). You can learn more in a post on the official Microsoft 365 Insider website.