Personal activity log of lessons learned, obscure and not so obscure technical tidbits and even some philosophy rants, which are a by-product of my personal and professional comings and goings.
Hey Folks!
We’ve been playing and discussing Calibri, Aptos ( Bierstadt ), Grandview, Seaford, Tenorite and Skeena over on Tildes and I figured you folks would enjoy clicking around and seeing what the differences between them actually are.
I wrote the article, so let me know if there’s something you’d like to see as well :D
Aside from using it to make jokes? It’s not bad, a legible sans-serif that renders well on low resolution screens. A lot of discussions about “clean” fonts seem to squabble over minutiae while the important part of being readable seems forgotten.
I don’t mind Calibri, but Aptos does look like an improvement. I particularly like the serif added to the lowercase L… it has always annoyed me how that and uppercase I look exactly the same in many fonts. It’s one of the reasons why I’m partial to fonts with serifs.
I think so too! Did you click through the Lorem Ipsum examples? Aptos is much easier on the eyes even in dense paragraphs.
I particularly like the serif added to the lowercase L
For the record, my calling those serifs has been a point of contention. To me Aptos feels like a semi-serif, not a sans-serif, although it’s officially one! However, it’s been suggested to me that I should do away with the serif terminology and call them simply stroke terminals!
What are the “display” variants of the new fonts in that article? In the examples, they’re the ones with a * appended. They look much narrower to me (which I like).
I’m not at my PC right now, so it may just be that there’s an “Aptos Display” font or something 😅
Yes they’re usually called “<fontfamily> Display”. IIRC Display variants are optimized to be used on digital displays (usually on the web), where a lower resolution (72ish DPI) than printing (~300 DPI) is quite common.
From what I know display font variants are intended for short text, so book titles movie posters, maybe headings but not body text. They usually bolder with more flourishes and look best if they’re big on the page but might not be very readable in long, small formats.
On that paragraph about prominence, what I do notice is that the letters are way more closed, with less noticeable gaps, for example with a letter ‘c’. To those with weaker eyesight, the letters may be seen as an ‘o’. But a great article and I liked the comparisons.
Grandview seemed to do the best in clearly identifying the character 0. Is it an O, 0, I, l, or 1? Even without an example of O clearly visible in the sample text, the shape of 0 was very clear and seems like it should stand apart. Not the only reason to select a font, but it might be important to some.
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Great article. I lived 40+ years before giving any attention to any fonts at all.
Thank you ! I’m a bit overwhelmed by the positive resonance so far, so now I’m wondering what to write after that will give me the same high haha :)
Still adapting to Calibri … I liked arial because it was usually near the top of the font list so it was easy to find, lol
Maybe that’s why the new one got renamed to Aptos, ha.
Why? I’m not getting the joke :D
It will be near the top of the list of fonts since it begins with “A”. I think that was what they were getting at.
Thank you for getting the joke :-)
Haha big brain time :P
OK, you’re the only person who has managed to make me angry hehe :)
Someone actually likes Arial ??!!
Aside from using it to make jokes? It’s not bad, a legible sans-serif that renders well on low resolution screens. A lot of discussions about “clean” fonts seem to squabble over minutiae while the important part of being readable seems forgotten.
I agree wholeheartedly, it’s readable, but oh so ugly and brutalistic :P
Heyyyyy a fellow Arial fan. The Aptos font feels like the Mac version of Arial.
I don’t mind Calibri, but Aptos does look like an improvement. I particularly like the serif added to the lowercase L… it has always annoyed me how that and uppercase I look exactly the same in many fonts. It’s one of the reasons why I’m partial to fonts with serifs.
OK, debate solved,
serifs->stroke terminalsOh my god yes! future generations will be shocked that it took us that long to solve that particular typography problem.
I think so too! Did you click through the Lorem Ipsum examples? Aptos is much easier on the eyes even in dense paragraphs.
For the record, my calling those serifs has been a point of contention. To me Aptos feels like a semi-serif, not a sans-serif, although it’s officially one! However, it’s been suggested to me that I should do away with the serif terminology and call them simply stroke terminals!
Still mulling over this.
That was a fantastic article! There’s so much that I would never have noticed.
That was a fantastic article! There’s so much that I would never have noticed.
Thank you so much, this sort of feedback warms my heart, it really does !
Feel free to stick around via the Mailinglist or the Fediverse (Y), links are in
#whoami!And so the Aptos era begins.
What are the “display” variants of the new fonts in that article? In the examples, they’re the ones with a * appended. They look much narrower to me (which I like).
I’m not at my PC right now, so it may just be that there’s an “Aptos Display” font or something 😅
Yes they’re usually called “<fontfamily> Display”. IIRC Display variants are optimized to be used on digital displays (usually on the web), where a lower resolution (72ish DPI) than printing (~300 DPI) is quite common.
From what I know display font variants are intended for short text, so book titles movie posters, maybe headings but not body text. They usually bolder with more flourishes and look best if they’re big on the page but might not be very readable in long, small formats.
Seaford* looking good
NO!! >:( https://jdsalaro.com/note/comparison-new-microsoft-default-font-calibri-aptos/#final-remarks
I agree, I like the variance in line weight on it. I’m a dirty serif-lover, though.
I’m gonna miss the compactness of Calibri. I might have to reduce my font sizes now if I want to use Aptos in my pre-existing spreadsheets.
You’re not wrong about compactness, that’s a really good point!
I fell in love with Tenorite.
Why is that :D ?
Not that I disagree with you, as it’s also my favorite, but just wanting to hear your reasons :)
Now that you say that, I liked Aptos’
G, but now I dislike it because it’ll likely make things harder for people with poor eyesight.On that paragraph about prominence, what I do notice is that the letters are way more closed, with less noticeable gaps, for example with a letter ‘c’. To those with weaker eyesight, the letters may be seen as an ‘o’. But a great article and I liked the comparisons.
Grandview seemed to do the best in clearly identifying the character 0. Is it an O, 0, I, l, or 1? Even without an example of O clearly visible in the sample text, the shape of 0 was very clear and seems like it should stand apart. Not the only reason to select a font, but it might be important to some.
Wow I always new I hated Calibri but looking at it up close REALLY made me hate it. I don’t know what it is about that font but I just can’t stand it.