Fonts and Feelings: New Adobe study links typefaces to perception, with Times New Roman leading and Wingdings in the crosshairs
Adobe survey finds Times New Roman tops popularity and credibility, while Wingdings and Comic Sans fare poorly; Microsoft shifts Calibri to Aptos as default
A new Adobe-backed survey of 1,013 Americans asks people to rate 13 fonts and reveals clear patterns in how typefaces are perceived in daily life. The study found Times New Roman remains the most popular, chosen by 27 percent, followed by Calibri at 16 percent, with Helvetica and Arial tied at 12 percent and Georgia at 8 percent. The fonts surveyed included Helvetica, Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, Comic Sans, Roboto, Courier New, Verdana, Impact, Lobster, Georgia, Wingdings, and Papyrus.
Experts say serif fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia are associated with formality and professionalism, while sans serifs like Arial and Calibri are seen as casual and modern. Men were 45 percent more likely than women to say Times New Roman was their favorite. The results also show strong opinions on more decorative fonts, with Wingdings identified by 55 percent as the cringiest option and Comic Sans named cringey by 17 percent, Papyrus by 11 percent, Lobster by 8 percent and Impact by 3 percent. In a separate note on business communications, 64 percent of respondents linked Times New Roman with a reputable, legitimate business in emails, far ahead of Arial, Calibri, Verdana and Roboto.
Generational patterns show Gen Z favoring Times New Roman as its top pick, with more than one in three saying it is their favorite. By contrast, Gen X and Baby Boomers are 60 percent more likely than Gen Z and Millennials to favor Arial.
The study comes as Microsoft adopted Aptos as the default font replacing Calibri for the first time in 17 years. Aptos, a sans serif font with varying geometric shapes, is designed to be easily readable across languages and tones. Microsoft described it as bold, well defined, directive and constrained; its stems are clean cut and subtle circular shapes within the letters help legibility at small sizes.
The findings illustrate how font choice influences perceptions in culture and digital communication, with implications for branding, email etiquette and user experience in design.