• Lowlands@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Hmmm…almost exact 15 years after the 2007 MS design patent on Calibri (which had a duration of 15 years) they switch to a new, alternative Office-exclusive font for the next 15 years.

    Only to be used ‘freely’ for personal use and again probibited to be bundled with, let’s say, other products like LibreOffice.

    It’s all about lock-in and revenue, plain and simple. The same business strategy like Apple with the default San Francisco font and Adobe with the default Minion Pro font. I understand why they do it this way, I just don’t like it.

  • Uniquitous@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    1 year ago

    Aptos was created by Steve Matteson, who is also responsible for Windows 3.1’s original TrueType fonts (including Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New) as well as Segoe, which has been Windows’ default system font since Vista and is also used for Microsoft’s current logo.

    Fuckin’ hell though. You gotta respect someone who’s been in the game that long. And his one, single, sole job is fonts. That’s dedication. Or maybe just a gravy train. But either way, dude has predicated an entire career on how letters look. Mad respect.

  • ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    1 year ago

    At first I thought there was something strange about the “s,” but I couldn’t put my finger on it. So I looked at the other fonts they considered and I realized I didn’t like the “s” in those either. Then I looked at the font on the webpage and realized all "s"es look wrong to me.

    I guess I just have to live this way now.

    • Z4rK@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      They are not actually entirely identical. Bierstadt will be available in its original form, while the new font have a significantly wider spacing between characters.

  • TWeaK@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    Is this maybe a ploy to date things again? I can’t remember exactly what it was (I think it was in a Darknet Diaries episode) but there was a court case where a guy came in with a document proving something in his favour. It was a contract or letter from the other side of his case. They managed to prove it was fake because it was in Calibri, Office’s default font, which hadn’t even been invented back when the document was supposedly written.

    • Leo@lemmy.linuxuserspace.showOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      Amateur. Always use Times New Roman.

      On a serious note, it sounds like a transition to fonts that better support scaled 4K and up monitors.

  • ixian@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Calibri is honestly a great font. Easy on the eyes and easy to read.

  • thayer@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I havent’t read the article yet, but I hope they fixed the subpar rendering for general use, because Bierstadt looked terrible in general desktop apps. In fact, none of the proposed typefaces rendered well under native Windows ClearType.