Microsoft have done many great things over the years but have also made some bad (maybe awful) decisions in my opinion. This includes discontinuing Zune and Windows Phone and Xbox Kinect as well as the addition of Clippy to Office or the removal of the Start Menu in Windows 8.

However, the latest change that I am less than impressed by is the changing of the default Office font (technically Typeface) from Calibri to Aptos. This article explains how to restore Calibri as the default in Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft have spent a lot of time working on designing and selecting a new typeface and have their reasons for updating it in Office. According to the creator, Steve Matteson, Aptos was based on the Bierstadt typeface and is described as a Helvetica with a bit of a human touch that makes it more approachable and less institutional.

Aptos was made with high resolution, high density displays in mind and sadly it shows.

I am not averse to change and have embraced many of the UI (User Interface) changes to the Office menus, toolbars, ribbons, and other navigation layouts over the years. But the change of the Default Theme to the Aptos 12 point font in Microsoft Outlook is not working for me.

I find the font blurry and hard to read on my main monitor (running at 100% DPI, no scaling), when I moved the message window to my other screen (Surface Book 2 display running at 150% DPI) it does look better, but I still prefer Calibri 11 point as it just seems cleaner and less bulky, especially when bolded.

Changing the default font size from 11 point to 12 point makes everything take up more space which means more scrolling through emails to see the same amount of text.

A search of the forums and feedback portals shows that I am not the only one who did not appreciate this change.

Changing the Default Font and Style Set

Rather than just get grumpy, I looked for how to change the fonts back to Calibri.  Below are the steps I started with (for Desktop Microsoft Outlook):

• Select File >> Options, and then select Mail and Stationery and Fonts.

• Then change the font for all three sections back to Calibri 11 point.

These changes seemed to make it behave better, but text emails were still using Aptos. Another issue is that I have lots of email templates already created in Word and when copy and pasted into an email, the font changed to Aptos, even though it was Calibri in Word. I could select Keep Source Formatting from the Paste options, but it was still an annoying extra step.

I realized that the font changes completed above was not enough as the default theme had not changed.

A bit more research and I located the additional steps needed to restore Calibri to the Theme Fonts.

The following extra steps are needed to change the Default Theme for Outlook Messages (Thanks to fellow MVPs, Stefan Blom and Diane Poremsky):

• From a new Message (making sure you click in the body of the message first), on the ribbon select Format Text. Then select Change Styles >> Fonts and select the Office 2013 – 2022 theme.

• [Edit] From a new Message (making sure you click in the body of the message first), on the ribbon select Format Text. Then select Change Styles >> Style Set and select first Basic (Elegant) style set. This will reset the default fonts back to Calibri. Added this step as it also fixes pasting from clipboard issues.

• To make this the new default, select Change Styles >> Set as Default and click Yes to the confirmation dialog.

This will restore the default fonts and default theme to use Calibri font.

Fixing Copy and Paste

[Edit] Even after all the changes listed above, Copying and Pasting via the clipboard into Outlook would often change the font to Aptos.  This happened when the font in the source Word document was Calibri 11pt and the default font in the target Outlook email was Calibri 11pt. When pasting into the email, the result was suddenly Aptos 12pt.

The Paste Options default to Use Destination Styles, but none of my Destination Styles are using Aptos.  Changing to the first option Keep Source Formatting or the second option Merge Formatting bring the pasted text back to Calibri. Having to use the Paste Options every time was becoming very annoying.

OK, I was wrong…. As I am writing this article and testing techniques, I just found another location where Aptos was set as a default. In the previous section I have added the extra step after changing the Fonts to reset the Style Set. This brings back Calibri as a default font and resolves the pasting issue.

For completeness, I will also show the other solution for controlling pasting behavior.

• Select File >> Options, and then select Mail and Editor Options.

• Click on Advanced and scroll down to the Cut, copy and paste section. Then change the Pasting from other programs from Keep Source Formatting (Default) to Merge Formatting.

Note: Merge Formatting does keep the font from changing, but does appear to lose other formatting such as highlighting and bold, etc.

• Click OK twice to close the Options windows.

As seen in the pasting example screenshot (above) when pasting from Word to Outlook it ignored the Keep Source Formatting setting and attempted to Use Destination Styles instead. So, this change to Merge Formatting will fix the pasting issue even if the Destination Styles have not been restored to Calibri by resetting the Style Set.

Fixing the default font used for Text only emails

Updating the Style Set (as described above) has also fixed text only emails so that they now show with the default Calibri font and not with Aptos. I think the nightmare of Aptos in Outlook is finally over.

Note: Please note that many of these settings flow through to the other Office applications, but some might need to be reapplied in the other programs.

Email Signatures with tables showing borders

[Edit] A recent Microsoft 365 (Office) update forces tables in email signatures to show the borders even when they were set to No Border. See the following for more details:

• #MSOffice Hiding Signature Table Borders in Microsoft Outlook

More Information

For more information see the following articles and forum posts:

• Ars Technica: So long, Calibri: Microsoft has settled on a new font for its Office apps
• The Verge: Meet Microsoft Office’s new default font: Aptos
• Office Watch: Outlook – change away from Aptos font
• Community Forum: How do I change the Default Theme Font in Outlook?
• Community Forum: Reverting Aptos +body/+headings font back to Calibri, or using any other font

Hope you find this information helpful.

David

PS: I still have my two Zune HD devices (32G and 64G) and have recently replaced the batteries and protective cases and I love them. The ability to listen to music for 30+ hours of flights and arrive with my phone at full battery is awesome. I don’t care if my dedicated music player has a flat battery at the end of a trip but would be concerned if my primary communication device had no charge.

08-Mar-2024: Added steps to change Style Set and section on fixing pasting from clipboard into Outlook.
20-Mar-2024: Added not to make sure you were in the body of the message before changing style settings.
08-Jan-2026: Added section mentioning Outlook email signature issue with table borders showing.

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.