Calibri Font: Microsoft Office Font, Download and Alternatives

What Is Calibri Font?

Calibri is a humanist sans serif designed by Lucas de Groot for Microsoft. It became the default font in Microsoft Office with Office 2007, taking over from older defaults like Times New Roman in Word and Arial in other apps.

Calibri stayed the Office default for a long time. In 2023 Microsoft announced a new default font called Aptos, and it started rolling out from 2024. Calibri is still installed and still easy to pick from the font menu.

So, is Calibri a sans serif font? Yes. It has no small feet (serifs) at the ends of strokes. "Humanist" means its shapes follow handwriting a little, so it feels warm instead of mechanical.

Calibri Font Style: What Does Calibri Font Look Like?

• Rounded corners: stroke ends and corners are slightly soft, which gives Calibri its gentle feel.
• Compact width: letters are fairly narrow, so you fit more words on a page than with Arial.
• Made for screens: it was designed to look clear on computer screens using Microsoft's ClearType text rendering.
• Lowercase a and g: the "a" has two storeys (a hook on top), while the "g" is the simpler single-storey shape. These are easy ways to spot it.

A short Calibri font example: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Typed in Calibri at 11 pt, it looks small, neat and modern. Use the preview above as a Calibri font sample to test your own words.

Calibri Font Vs Times New Roman and Aptos

On Aptos font vs Calibri: both are clean sans serifs. Old documents keep Calibri, and new blank documents in updated Office may start in Aptos. You can switch either way from the Home tab.

Calibri Font Download: Where It Comes From

Calibri belongs to Microsoft. It comes with Windows and Microsoft Office, and the licence does not let anyone share the font file freely. That is why a "Calibri font family free download" from a random site is not a legal source, even if the file works.

• Windows: Calibri is already installed on most PCs. Open Word and pick it from the font list.
• Calibri font download Mac: install Microsoft Office for Mac (or Microsoft 365). Calibri comes with it for use in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• No Office? If you want to download Calibri font files on their own, there is no official free source. Use a free font similar to Calibri, shown below.

In Word you may see "Calibri (Body)" in the font box. That is simply Calibri set as the theme font for body text, so there is no separate Calibri Body font download to look for.

Microsoft explains its font licensing on Microsoft Learn's typography pages.

Free Font Similar to Calibri: Carlito and Other Fonts Like Calibri

Carlito is a free font that is metric-compatible with Calibri. That means every letter takes the same width, so a document made in Calibri keeps the same line breaks and page count when Carlito is used instead. It is released under the SIL Open Font License, so it is free for personal and commercial use.

LibreOffice uses Carlito to show Calibri documents correctly on computers without Microsoft fonts.

Other Calibri like fonts with a similar soft, modern mood:

• Carlito: the closest match, same widths.
• Open Sans and Lato: free humanist sans fonts on Google Fonts, a little wider.
• Inter and Roboto: free, clean and made for screens.
• Aptos: the newer Office default, if you have Microsoft 365.

Using Calibri in HTML and CSS

To set the HTML font Calibri on a web page, add it to your CSS with fallbacks: font-family: Calibri, Carlito, "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif;. Visitors on Windows with Office see Calibri. Many Mac, Android and iPhone users do not have it, so they get the next font in the list.

Do not upload Calibri files to your server as a web font, because the licence does not allow it. If you want every visitor to see the same font, load Carlito or a Google font instead. See our Google Fonts guide.

Is Calibri a Good Font for Resume and Office Work?

Yes. Calibri is safe, readable and opens correctly on almost every office computer, which matters when HR opens your file. Use 10.5 to 12 pt for body text and bold Calibri for headings. Keep one font for the whole resume. If you want to look a little more fresh, Aptos or a clean font like Inter also work, but save as PDF so the font does not change on the other side.

For copy-paste styled text in chats and bios, Calibri cannot be pasted as a font. Try the Unicode styles on our font generator or bold font pages instead.