• Lowlands@lemmy.world
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    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
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    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.

  • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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    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
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      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.

    • Z4rK@lemmy.world
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      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.

  • ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    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.

  • sithbelle@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    @leo I feel like some of the other suggested fonts were a bit stronger contenders than Bierstadt, though admittedly the name is awesome.

    I’ll miss you, Calibri!

    • Leo@lemmy.linuxuserspace.showOP
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      1 year ago

      Agreed on the name.

      As for the others, I’m a fan of Tenorite. Squattier than the rest, but it has the most “character

      • surrendertogravity@wayfarershaven.eu
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        1 year ago

        I like the friendlier feeling of Seaford (the o shapes have a little tilt to them rather than being straight on the grid), but I’m guessing they leaned towards the most “generic” of the five because as a default font you want it to become “invisible” almost. I think a more unique font would stand out and then become a little grating over time given how much it would be seen.

        • sithbelle@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          @surrendertogravity Seaford was my favorite of the group, too. It feels like it has a bit more weight, like it’s more “official” or something.

          Hopefully they’ll include it as a choice as well, even if it’s not the “default”.

  • Molecular0079@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I was…expecting something better than Calibri, but this new font is decidedly less versatile and pleasant to the eye IMHO.

  • thayer@lemmy.ca
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    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.

      • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I am, tho’. If it’s the new standard Windows font, it’s going to become the new standard communication font at work.

        • nomadjoanne@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I hate how people (not us but most people out there) are so profoundly lazy so as to do exactly this. Changing your default font in the options is too much apparently. So everyone becomes forced to use the default.

    • red__raven@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Calibri would be ok as a default font in my book, if they had taken the time to further differentiate a capital “I” and a lowercase “l”

      Honestly how does something like that just go untouched for years.

        • red__raven@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I work with codes a lot. And so it’s not like I can figure out what the character is based on context. It’s a code, it can be either one.

          • SquatchPodiatrist@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I manage a few shared mailboxes, so I’ll often get an email meant for “hlt” to the “hit” box. The scary thing is that all of these emails contain identifying personal information for clients and these people aren’t even making sure they have the correct email address before hitting send.

  • Fantomas@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    🕈︎✋︎☠︎☝︎👎︎✋︎☠︎☝︎💧︎ ☝︎✌︎☠︎☝︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎ ●︎♓︎♐︎♏︎📬︎

  • ixian@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

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