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# Microsoft releases a free font drawn from Michelangelo’s handwriting
- URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/microsoft-releases-a-free-font-drawn-from-michelangelos-handwriting/
- Published: 2026-10-16T04:16:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-16T04:16:57.000Z
- Description: The Vatican office that maintains St. Peter’s Basilica commissioned the typeface for its 400th anniversary.
- Author: Adam Schrader
- Tags: Science and Technology, #public-access

Microsoft has released Michelangelus, a free serif typeface based on Michelangelo’s letters and signature, and plans to add it to Word, PowerPoint and Excel by the end of the year.

The [Fabbrica di San Pietro](https://www.basilicasanpietro.va/en/news/michelangelus-font-press-release?ref=urgentmatter.press), the Vatican office that maintains St. Peter’s Basilica, commissioned the font to mark 400 years since the church’s consecration. Pope Urban VIII consecrated the basilica on November 18, 1626, and Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to celebrate Mass there on the anniversary.

Studiogusto, a design studio based in Italy and Germany, drew the letterforms. Microsoft, which announced the release in an October 8 [post on its Microsoft Design site](https://microsoft.design/articles/designing-michelangelus/?ref=urgentmatter.press), said it handled legal clearances and technical and typographic checks with the Vatican.

Microsoft’s post about Michelangelus is not set in Michelangelus.

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The font is free to download and use. Version 1.10 of the font went up on the Microsoft Download Center on October 6\. The listing names Windows 10, Windows 11 and Mac as supported systems.

“Our first decision, probably the most important one, was not to emulate and perfectly imitate Michelangelo’s handwriting,” Stefano Caliandro, Studiogusto’s founder and creative director, said in the Microsoft post.

The studio took its cue from Michelangelo’s letters to his nephew Lionardo, whose penmanship he could barely read. Michelangelo told Lionardo that each time one of his letters arrived, “I come down with a fever from the effort it takes me to read it,” the Fabbrica said.

Microsoft’s post says Michelangelo once threw one of Lionardo’s letters into a fire and told him not to write again until his handwriting improved.

“The aesthetic side of the characters were super important to the master, but also the accessibility and readability,” Caliandro said.

The lowercase letters come from Michelangelo’s handwriting and signature. The designers spent a week on the lowercase “g” alone, Microsoft’s post says.

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“Usually, you start from the regular version of the font, but in this case, we started from the italic, because in that period, the only way of writing was a specific italic writing system,” said Alessandro Grandinetti, Studiogusto’s brand manager.

Studiogusto’s [project site](https://michelangelus.studiogusto.com/?ref=urgentmatter.press) says the team studied more than 300 Michelangelo manuscripts. The Fabbrica said the studio worked from originals held in its own archives, the Vatican Apostolic Archives and Casa Buonarroti in Florence.

Michelangelo did not leave a full set of capital letters or numerals in his hand. For the uppercase, the studio drew on carved inscriptions, including the Roman capitals across the sash of the *Pietà* and Latin lettering in St. Peter’s.

“Technically, it’s not a condensed typeface,” Caliandro said, “but you can feel there’s something condensed.”

Microsoft’s post says Michelangelus has more than 2,000 glyphs across four styles: regular, italic, bold and bold italic. The Fabbrica’s press release and Studiogusto’s site each put the count at more than 500.

The Vatican first announced the font in February, at a press conference on the plans for the anniversary. Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the basilica’s archpriest, said there that each of Michelangelo’s handwritten numbers “seemed like a work of art.”

The Fabbrica said that access comes with a license meant to protect how the typeface family is used and shared, and Studiogusto’s site says Microsoft holds the license and handles distribution.

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