Microsoft has never laid out in so many words why it feels it needs to move away from Calibri, though today's announcement implies that Aptos was made with high-resolution, high-density displays in mind. Calibri replaced Times New Roman as the suite's default font in Office 2007, at a time before "Retina" displays and when 1024×768 and 1280×800 screens were still the norm—a ClearType font, Calibri itself was a response to the shift from CRT to LCD screens.

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. Given Matteson's history with Microsoft, choosing Aptos over the others feels like the safest possible choice.

The main flavor of Aptos is a sans-serif font—described by Matteson as "Helvetica" but with "a bit of a human touch" that makes it "more approachable and less institutional." But like Apple's San Fransisco typeface, Aptos comes in many different styles, including condensed, monospaced, and serifed versions. //

The switch to Aptos begins today for Microsoft 365 subscribers; for people who bought the standalone perpetually licensed Office 2021, Calibri will presumably remain the default. Calibri will remain an option pinned to the top of the former Office apps' font selection menu, along with Times New Roman and Arial.

As for the options that lost the default typeface contest—Tenorite, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview—they'll all continue to be available in Microsoft's apps as non-default options. Everyone's a winner.