Calibri – a new font from Windows Vista

by Bharat Suneja

I recently saw a new font installed on my “production” laptop (running Windows XP SP2) – Calibri.

Calibri is a beautiful humanist sans serif typeface designed by Dutch designer Luc(as) De Groot, and one I started using immediately as the default in Word documents and email.

Calibri font in Windows

My earlier attempts at using another font that seems to have been installed with Vista (no, I don’t have Windows Vista beta/CTP installed on my production laptop yet… but more about that in a moment) became quite unpopular around here.

I’m trying to figure out if it was the IE 7 beta that installed these fonts on my laptop, or perhaps Office “12” beta.

Either way, as someone who’s very interested in typography and graphic design, I do love Calibri enough that I’m using it for this blog. (“Update: In a later redesign, Calibri was replaced with the equally beautiful and very readable Cambria and then by Segoe UI.) You may (or may not… ) have noticed the change when you view these pages in your browser. If you don’t have the font, it will get substituted for some other sans serif font on your computer. (If you’re on a Mac, you’ll see it sustituted by Avenir Book.)

Microsoft ClaerType font collection

I would love to find out what you think about Calibri – leave a comment here if you feel strongly about this font and the others included with Windows Vista/IE7/ Office “12”.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

G. Parkinson, Wigan, UK December 7, 2006 at 11:26 am

I have Vista and Ofiice 2007 and love the font. The font will have been installed with Office “12” as it is the default font for microsoft word and others. I love the font, and am glad to see people using it on their webpages. As for links to download, it is pretty scarce as it is a trademark. But the font is awesome. It may actually be one of the best fonts I have ever seen.

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Richard Mankhey January 8, 2008 at 8:05 pm

This is so great! I love love LOVE the ‘Calibri’ font and everyone in my office knows it.

They rib me for how much I’m always bringing up how awesome it is, but it’s great to see I’m not the only one! Yay!

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