Microsoft changes font, exposing my out-of-touch changes

I spend a fair amount of time shaking my head at writers who are out of touch.

But it turns out that I'm the old-timer.

The back story: In July, Microsoft announced that it was changing its default font typeface for its suite of products used by millions of people. The font (type style) used in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and other apps will change from Calibri to a font family called Aptos, which is a little bit east of Santa Cruz. Get it? But enough font jokes.

Aptos apparently used to be called Bierstadt, which I thought was a small microbrewery in the Gateway area of Fairfield. Apparently not. But enough font jokes.

I know you're thinking this isn't important. The change will be seamless and unimportant to most readers. If the typeface in Word documents or in your Outlook email changes to something that insiders say will look better in high-resolution, high-density monitors, so what? In a day or two, you'll get used to it and soon you'll forget how Calibri looked.

But I'm not normal.

My lack of normalcy became more unhinged when this news broke because it clarified something that should have been obvious: Calibri is Word's default font!

There's a reason why 90% of the things I edit in my job – written by others – are in Calibri. It's not because people are old-fashioned or stubborn. It's because Calibri is Microsoft's default font. It's how Word sets your type. It's how the emails arrive. It's the default for PowerPoint slides and Excel documents.

All this time, I thought people were out of touch. Instead, I was obtuse.

As an editor (I don't work at the newspaper, but my job title is editor), I'm stubborn. I want things to look right. So it's common for me to get a document written in Calibri, define it all and change the font to Times New Roman, my preference. 

Times New Roman!

That's my Word document default, a change I make whenever I get a new laptop. It's the font in which the Daily Republic was printed for much of my career (the current font is Dutch 811, which is slightly better than Dutch 810, presumably. But enough font jokes.).

Times New Roman just looks right!

As I read the announcement of Microsoft's change, my eyes bugged out. It was even worse.

"Calibri replaced Times New Roman as the suite's default font in Office 2007."

What? Two thousand-seven? Times New Roman was booted by Microsoft 16 years ago?

All the time I thought I was changing fonts to save colleagues from being old-fashioned, I was making it more old-fashioned!  I was removing their old tube TVs and replacing them with stand-up radios. I was taking them off the train and putting them in a stagecoach.

I've seen the light. I've been educated. My tomfoolery has been exposed.

Times New Roman is old-fashioned. Calibri may look elementary to me, but it's newer than Times New Roman. And Aptos is the new standard.

So the next time I get a document in Calibri or Aptos, I'll realize it's modern.

And then I'll change it to Times New Roman, because that still looks better.

I'm not old-fashioned. I'm classic.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.