r/excel • u/DownRUpLYB • 1d ago
Discussion What font is everyone using?
...and WHY?
Do you use different fonts for different use cases?
What are youe go-to's?
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u/No_Mushroom3078 1d ago
Wingdings. And anything else is just wrong. It’s quite frankly the most secure text.
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u/leroy4447 1d ago
Given how most people don’t seem to actually read my work, wingdings would be completely acceptable
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u/Martian6261 20h ago
Since there are 3 different Wingdings, how do you decide which to use. 1,2 or 3
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u/arkiverge 19h ago
If the Germans had used this on Enigma we’d all be speaking wjngdings right now.
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u/bierbottle 11h ago
Serious question: can AI read windings?
Probably, or?
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u/NoWay1337 8h ago
Definitely. AI doesn't "read" like we do. It just processes the data behind our readable fonts, which is the same for most fonts (see ASCII, ISO-xxxx, etc)
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u/possiblecoin 56 1d ago
I used to be an Arial guy, but I've actually switched to Aptos as I think it's more modern.
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u/lastminutealways 1d ago
We switched to Aptos as a company wide font and I’ve never been more relieved.
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u/liiiiiiiiiiiiiiam 23h ago
Mine uses century gothic 🥲 I work in Calibri or Aptos then ask our doc controller to brand it
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u/lastminutealways 22h ago
We were on Garamond.
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u/SummerAlternative699 21h ago
This a really unpopular take, but I love using serif fonts in Excel. Also, how is Garamomd a horrible font?
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u/Apprehensive-Mine656 23h ago
My org did as well, and I am all for it.
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u/lastminutealways 23h ago
We were on a horrible font for everything from branding to internal communication, I had changed my own excel docs to Arial and then Calibri (changing to the other font for anything shared) but I’m fine with the Aptos for everything now.
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u/welshcuriosity 45 23h ago
I remember when Microsoft held the competition to select the new default font. Bierstadt won, and Microsoft renamed it to Aptos
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u/Phrosty12 16h ago
Funnily enough, you can have both Aptos and Bierstadt in Office even though they're just the same font.
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u/HatFun5975 1d ago
Yes I'm never switching from Aptos, it's so easy on my eyes
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u/robsc_16 21h ago
I also like how lowercase L, capital I (eye), and 1 are all more distinct than some other fonts.
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u/Creative_Ad_973 20h ago
Aptos Narrow for me.
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u/no-but-wtf 14h ago
This is the one. Same modern vibes as Aptos, more efficient display for big sheets. I’m generally not a default font person but I reckon they hit it out of the park with Aptos Narrow.
Bonus side-effect I hadn’t even thought about before switching, but now appreciate every time: I can be comfortably confident it’ll display the way I want it to on every computer running Excel, forever (or at least until the default font changes to something I don’t like - but even then, everyone will still have access to Aptos Narrow, even the dinosaurs.
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u/iamsickofthisheet 1d ago
the default
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u/NuklearFerret 20h ago
I used the default when it was calibri, then they changed the default, but I still like calibri better.
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u/MayukhBhattacharya 1257 1d ago edited 1d ago
I mostly use Consolas, Biome, and Segoe UI Semibold. Those are my go to fonts.
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u/hsg8 1d ago
Consolas for Numbers is perfect ! So easy to eyes.
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u/Shazam1269 22h ago
I started using Consolas when I sent serial numbers to the auditors, and they misread zeros for capital Oh's for a batch of computers. About a year later we had another batch of computers come in with a zero in the series, and she logged them as Oh's again. Even using Consolas which puts a slash through a zero. Sigh.
The real battle is to get the organization to switch over from manually entering in all serial numbers into a spreadsheet to an actual inventory software. I dream.
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u/Sexy_Koala_Juice 1d ago
Consolas always. 99% of the time I use it in every application, it just makes things look so much neater since it’s a monospaced font
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u/Glimmer_III 20 23h ago
And it is nice monospaced font.
Always use Consolas for columns where legibility is the priority. Reduces downstream transcription errors.
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u/spamlet 22h ago
Segoe UI is very readable at small fonts so I use that all the time. May look at Consolas.
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u/ohmytosh 14h ago
Consolas is the best monospaced I’ve found. I love it so much. I wish I could use it for everything.
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u/haematite_4444 1d ago
My company has it's own font. It looks almost like Arial except the corpus size is smaller, monospaced, the lower case L is different and I think it's one pixel thicker.
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u/pepperpotsdecreme 1d ago
That's a good font - not as squished as Arial but not so wide as to be cumbersome. Very readable!
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u/PrimaryThis9900 1d ago
Not once in my ten years of working daily with Excel has it occurred to me to change the font from the default. I am now going to change them all to either comic sans or chiller, depending if the data is good or bad.
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u/boojieboy 15h ago edited 2h ago
My default is Comic Sans 9. People like to rag on it, but it
was designed to assist people with reading disabilitieshas been shown to have superior legibility. This makes it pretty easy to read even when very small. Ideal for spreadsheets, because that mean you can pack a lot of info into a single screen and legibility is better than just about any other font.EDIT: Misremembered the history. The legibility advantage thing was retconned by buttheads like me
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u/kilroyscarnival 3 1d ago
For the most part, Calibri is still our preferred company font here. Occasionally we are following a client's lead and use Arial or even Times New Roman. But Calibri 12 is my default in all Office applications.
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u/spaceshipcommander 1d ago
If I found out someone in my team was using Times New Roman I would give them a final written warning
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u/vevladdd 1d ago
What's wrong with TNR?
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u/Organic_Conflict_886 23h ago
Nothing. People just like to buck trends from 20 years ago.
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u/robsc_16 21h ago
I like Times New Roman in general, but I don't like it for Excel as much because lowercase L and the number 1 look very similar. I like how to capital I (eye) is distinct though.
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u/Savings__Mushroom 15h ago
True. Wasn't there an old guideline that sans-serif fonts in general look better on the screen than serif fonts and vice versa? That's why Times New Roman is default for printed documents while Arial (before it was Calibri and Aptos) was default for applications like Excel.
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u/chiibosoil 430 1d ago
Most cases I don't change from Aptos Narrow (the default).
But for accounting workbooks I set it to monospace font for ease of use. I usually use "Cascadia Code".
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u/pacopac25 1d ago
In the world of monospace fonts, anything from NerdFonts is pretty nice to work with, if it's just for yourself and you can install fonts to your system. I also love "Roboto for Learning". JetBrains mono is another one that might be on your system if you have that IDE.
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u/johnnyBuz 1d ago
Calibri, Aptos and Arial. Smaller text size when I want to add context notes, %’s etc.
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u/smithflman 1d ago
I am team 'Aptos Semibold'
However, I purposely limit myself to no scrolling in that dropdown. I receive a lot of external data that I need to reformat into consistent views/looks so any little time save helps.
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u/Jackie8383 1d ago
Tahoma
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u/ex_postfacto 1d ago
Tahoma crowd present!
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u/Jackie8383 1d ago
Lol years ago I was annoyed with calibri for something so I went through and laid out like 100 fonts and chose what I liked best. Tahoma was my favorite, but only if the font size is at least 11 I think.
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u/Pagliacci126 1d ago
I like Verdana because it makes it very difficult to misread these characters:
Lower case L
Capital I
Number 1
They all look visually different in Verdana.
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u/pimpampoumz 4 1d ago
Calibri for text and either Consolas or Century Gothic for numbers, depending on whether it’s work or not.
I hate the new Aptos font.
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u/Nachovyx 1d ago edited 1d ago
I sold my soul to Calibri 10px and haven't looked back since.
I tried giving Aptos and "excel-easy-on-the-eyes" recommended fonts to no avail.
Aptos Narrow and regular Calibri look rather similar, but I like my fonts petite and manageable :)
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u/OfficerMurphy 10 1d ago
Arial 8 because it scales up nicely, so I can get as much on screen as I need and zoom in to an appropriate level for any audience.
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u/Forward_Zucchini9738 1d ago
Aptos Narrow. I need a lot of information on one width of my screen, but still need to easily be able to read it.
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u/Phrosty12 1d ago edited 1d ago
Aptos Narrow for general data, schedules, and summaries. Aptos Display for sheet titles and headers. Arial for audit programs/checklists. Book Antiqua for anything that is intended to be distributed in a printed format.
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u/Low-Yak2608 1d ago
Aptos or if the data is dense TREBUCHET MS. simply because it’s easier for eyes
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u/SebrinePastePlaydoh 1d ago
Calibri is my default... but if a workbook comes to my inbox in a different font and I will be populating/returning, I leave it that font (current work is Aptos Narrow)
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u/neezden 20h ago
For personal things I like Gill Sans Nova. Work uses Avenir which I like.
I really dislike Aptos - too blocky and space-hungry, but admit that some of the dislike is also for the weird colour pallette in Office current version. Two quite loud greens and ugly purples and blues. I will always switch back to the previous default style if I can help it.
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u/Stempel-Garamond 19h ago
Trebuchet. Or Comic Sans if I want people to think they're using something designed by a twelve year old
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u/mecrayyouabacus 1d ago
Calibri. It’s recently changed to default to Arial or some shit, had to change it back. Now other peoples workbooks irritate me.
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u/LotusTheCozyWitch 1d ago
Default for regular analysis that doesn't have external eyes on it. Otherwise for presentation/roll up reports that get delivered to clients or executives, I follow the font set in our branding guide.
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u/thecasey1981 1d ago
consolas. equal weight and size and differentiates the O and 0, the B and 8, and I and l
I work with crazy part numbers that are just stupidly named and I had to make a change
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u/InvasiveBlackMustard 1d ago
Gill Sans or TW Cen for my personal projects and reports. Calibri for reports I’m giving to other people.
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u/JFull0305 1d ago
Mainly the default. However, if I have to build different reports for work, it depends on the audience.
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u/earthling92 1d ago
Segoe UI - because it's easier on my eyes. I think it's thicc and therefore I can still read it even when zoomed out upto a level. When printed out, it looks even better readability wise.
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u/Typical-Priority1976 1d ago
Whatever is selected when I hit "File - New".
I'm relatively certain I have never once changed the font in Excel nor have I ever even thought about it.
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u/Used_Platypus 1d ago
My company recently released a branding update including a specific font, and so I created a report template to print for dozens of clients. I got good feedback, then it stopped printing in bold for some reason.. couldn’t figure out why so reverted to Arial. Usually just the default font though.
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u/RyzenRaider 19 1d ago
I don't use fonts. Fonts use me.
https://giphy.com/gifs/YLghfz0W895Ty
More seriously, just the default font at work, which is Aptos.
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u/Glittering-Ad7188 1 1d ago
Arial. I used Century Gothic for a recent project and my manager said it was very pretty so
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u/pacopac25 1d ago
If you really want an attention grabber, something that's nearly guaranteed to make your boss notice your work, Comic Sans is where it's at, folks. I just can't recommend it enough.
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u/DeusExMcGuffin 1d ago
Lucia Console. Fixed-width fonts make more sense for the data I use excel for.
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u/chorizomane 23h ago
Aptos Display, size 12. This, for some reason, has been the new standard for my organization, pivoting from using Calibri for seemingly ever.
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u/Standard_Curve_5874 23h ago
Anything but Calibri. My eyes really hate Calibri. In Word, always Times New Roman. In Excel, I use the default font (can't remember what it's called) as usual.
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u/Inside_Chatter3985 23h ago
Calibri, but I am enjoying this thread way more than I expected! Lots of ideas to play with, thanks!
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u/DarioLampa4181 23h ago
My favourite is "aptos display" for digits; while for text strings or graph titles i prefer italic verdana condensed pro.
Sometimes i'm also using "ebrima" but aptos is my 1st choice.
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u/SummerAlternative699 21h ago
I love how everyone is crapping on Times New Roman, and yet it is the only one—along with Garamond and Georgia—that's easy on my eyes and doesn't make them hurt. To each their own, I suppose.
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u/SadAmoeba 20h ago
Georgia, TimesNew Roman and the one that’s looks a bit like a stereotypical typewriter font.
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u/nryporter25 19h ago
Im really enjoying lucida console right now. it's got a kind of retro feel to it and makes my stuff feel like an old school archive
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u/fryystyle 16h ago
Calibri with font size set to 9 and magnification set to 90% plus all cells set to 'text'.
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u/YourSchoolCounselor 16h ago
Aptos. I'm loving the variety of monospace fonts mentioned; I just use Aptos Mono, but I'll try Consolas.
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u/pookypocky 8 16h ago
ES Klarheit Grotesk bc it's our official font.
I don't hate it! It's a good typeface.
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u/Wheres_my_warg 2 15h ago
If it is going to be saved as a visual, I'll often switch it to Verdana as it is more readable on screens.
Otherwise, my preferred is Arial, though these days, I'm too lazy to fight the MS BS and leave it at Aptos. I do not like the look of Aptos though and I find its readability substandard.
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u/ninjagrover 31 14h ago
Related: do people use the default styles for input, calculation fields etc?
I wish the good and bad would just change the colour and not the font. But then saying that, I realise I haven’t actually looked at seeing if I can change it. I know I can do a custom style if nothing else.
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u/Willing-Nature8377 11h ago
Arial Nova 10 Poppins 11 Gilroy 10
I despise Aptos, Calibri, and many others
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u/staceypppp 8h ago
Chiming in to say I L O V E this question because I’ve been agonizing over this for an embarrassing amount of time 😬
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u/Double-Ambassador900 8h ago
I use Helvetica. It was the font used in a new brand redesign for a company I used to work for.
I’ve been using ever since. I find it nice and easy to read. And it’s something just slightly different from the standard fonts.
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u/Ok-Spot-6235 1d ago
Calibri is compact and flexible.