Calibri makes extensive use of sophisticated OpenType formatting; it features a range of ligatures as well as lining and text figures, indices (numbers enclosed by circles) up to 20, and an alternate f and g (shown in sample) accessible by enabling the fourth and fifth stylistic sets.

[10][11] Some features in Calibri remain unsupported by Office, including true small caps, all-caps spacing, superscript and subscript glyphs and the ability to create arbitrary fractions; these may be accessed using programs such as Adobe InDesign.

Joe Friend, a program manager on Word for Office 2007's release, explained that the decision to switch to Calibri was caused by a desire to make the default font one optimised towards onscreen display: "We believed that more and more documents would never be printed but would solely be consumed on a digital device", and to achieve a "modern look".

[17] For use in other operating systems and web apps, a license may be obtained from Ascender Corporation and its parent company Monotype Imaging.

[19] Starting with Microsoft Office 2013, Calibri Light is the default font for PowerPoint presentations and Word headings.

[20] Carlito's metric-compatibility ensures ChromeOS users can correctly display and print a document designed in Calibri without disrupting its layout.