New font selection available for Canvas for Elementary

[AllisonHowell]

I’m happy to share an exciting update coming to Canvas LMS in the Canvas Release Notes (2023-05-20): a new font option available for Canvas for Elementary! We’ve heard overwhelmingly positive feedback about Canvas for Elementary since it was launched in late 2021 to serve our younger learners. We’ve also heard repeatedly that many institutions love the simplified layout and would like to enable Canvas for Elementary for all of their accounts, but they prefer a different font for older learners.

With the release to production on May 20, admins will be able to select the default Canvas Lato font when they enable Canvas for Elementary.

Account settings can be confusing, so I wanted to share with you all how you can expect this particular one to work. Keep in mind that the font setting is tied directly to the Canvas for Elementary setting, so the account that enables Canvas for Elementary will choose the font for that account and all its subaccounts. This cannot be changed by the subaccount.

Action Taken by Admin	Resulting Impact to Subaccounts
Root Account enabled Canvas for Elementary setting and makes font selection	All subaccounts will have the font chosen at the root account level
Two different subaccounts enable Canvas for Elementary and have different font selections (e.g. Elementary account enables Balsamiq and High School enables Lato)	The subaccounts will reflect the font choice of the parent account that enabled the Canvas for Elementary setting (subaccounts under Elementary will have Balsamiq and subaccounts under High School will have Lato)
Parent account of a subaccount that has previously enabled Canvas for Elementary enables the setting and makes a font selection	The subaccount’s font setting will change to the one chosen by the parent account
Parent account of a subaccount that has previously enabled Canvas for Elementary disables the setting at the parent account	The subaccount that already had Canvas for Elementary enabled will revert to Balsamiq
User is enrolled in courses in two different subaccounts with different font selections	The font selection will be respected in each course (In shared spaces, such as the dashboard, the user will see Lato)

If you’ve never heard of Canvas for Elementary, or if you aren’t sure if it’s right for you, I encourage you to explore the Canvas for Elementary area of the Canvas Community. You’ll find lots of great resources, FAQs, how-to guides, and much more. Happy exploring!