The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Aptos vs Calibri
The two Microsoft Office defaults, back to back. Calibri, Lucas de Groot's humanist sans with softly rounded stems, was the default from Office 2007 until Microsoft replaced it in January 2024 with Aptos, Steve Matteson's cooler, more rationalised grotesque. Both are proprietary, but they come bundled with Office, so the real question is tone.
Aptos is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Inter, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Aptos → Calibri is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Carlito, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Calibri →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Aptos is a neo-grotesque in the Helvetica tradition, with flat horizontal and vertical stroke endings and a deliberately mechanical, rationalised feel that Matteson designed as a contrast to Arial.
- Calibri is humanist, with subtly rounded stems and corners and a true italic with handwriting influences, built in 2002 to 2005 for Microsoft's ClearType screen rendering.
- Aptos ships in 12 styles from Light to Black Italic plus Display, Narrow, Mono, Serif and Slab companions; Calibri's family is smaller, with the lighter weights sold separately by LucasFonts.
- Both are proprietary: they come with Microsoft 365 and Windows, but using either on the web or other platforms needs a separate licence, and Google's Carlito is a free metric-compatible stand-in for Calibri.
Aptos
Reach for Aptos when you want the current, neutral Office look, a wide weight range for headings and body text, and matching serif and mono companions.
Calibri
Reach for Calibri when you need to match existing Office documents, or when you want a warmer, softer screen sans and can live with its smaller family.