Rubio Deletes Calibri as the State Department's Official Typeface

Posted by hdk 8 hours ago

Comments

Comment by treetalker 8 hours ago

Butterick on TNR:

(https://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman-alternatives...)

> When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. It says, “I submitted to the font of least resistance.” Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice, like the blackness of deep space is not a color. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void.

> If you have a choice about using Times New Roman, please stop. Use something else.

And on Calibri:

(https://practicaltypography.com/calibri-alternatives.html)

> Like Cambria, Calibri works well on screen. But in print, its rounded corners make body text look soft. If you need a clean sans serif font, you have better options.

- - -

To telegraph an identity, TNR is a good choice for this administration; so, credit where due, well played. Still, I would have gone with Comic Sans.

Comment by nalnq 8 hours ago

The Times New Roman commentary could have been true back when it was written, but now Calibri is the default for Microsoft Word, and has been for a long while (almost 20 years). So choosing Calibri is the path of least resistance.

Comment by Zafira 7 hours ago

Aptos has been the default font for Microsoft Word since 2023.

Comment by pests 6 hours ago

With all the fanfare made over Calibri back when it was announced, TIL about Aptos

Comment by adzm 6 hours ago

Aptos is slightly wider and taller but looks very very similar to calibri, especially calibri a point larger.

Comment by rob74 2 hours ago

So now Times New Roman not only looks uninspired and bland, but also dated? Yeah, I would say that's a good fit...

Comment by Incipient 7 hours ago

>Still, I would have gone with Comic Sans.

I don't often genuinely laugh out loud at comments on HN, but that one was good! Subtle, classy, and a gentle yet effective dig.

Comment by bjoli 3 hours ago

People like this makes me want to use Times New Roman more. Maybe not Butterick specifically (the website is fine), but all those people that make a blog and pick a font before even knowing what they even want to write. Most of the time people change the default my web browser has, they make things worse. For a font choice to be any kind of personal expression in my eyes, you first need everything else in place: content, layout, design.

To spite these people I force the use of Arial on the worst offenders. The list is now a couple of thousand websites long.

Comment by eviks 3 hours ago

But you're not spiting anyone, they don't even know about this, just wasting your time compiling a list of a thousand websites

Comment by bjoli 3 hours ago

Oh, I could have picked a other font. I just get a smug feeling when forcing these websites to use Arial. The main reason for using another font on these web pages is that their own choices are worse than not changing it. So that list of thousands of web pages is to make their web pages legible and more usable, not just to be a prick.

I picked Arial so that I could tell the web pages apart from those who had the good taste to leave my web browsers standard font alone. I don't mind arial.

Comment by BobbyTables2 5 hours ago

I definitely was thinking of Comic Sans. Both in terms of the horrible typeface and the “not funny” connotation of the name. (Yeah I know sans is referring to lack of serif)

Comment by anigbrowl 7 hours ago

While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio’s directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork.

In an “Action Request” memo obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Rubio said that switching back to the use of Times New Roman would “restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work.” Calibri is “informal” when compared to serif typefaces like Times New Roman, the order said, and “clashes” with the department’s official letterhead.

As far back as I can recall, this is a politician who has railed against 'political correctness'.

Comment by zzo38computer 3 hours ago

Calibri font has "I" and "l" the same, according to Wikipedia. A better font should avoid characters being too similar (such as "I" and "l" and "1").

Another issue is due to the font size and font metrics, how much space it will take up on the page, to be small enough to avoid wasting paper and ink but also not too small to read.

So, there are multiple issues in choosing the fonts; however, Times New Roman and Calibri are not the only two possible choices.

Maybe the government should make up their own (hopefully public domain) font, which would be suitable for their purposes (and avoiding needing proprietary fonts), and use that instead.

Comment by softgrow 7 hours ago

As documented at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_Easter_eggs google search for "times new roman font" and the results are returned in that font. (https://www.google.com/search?q=Times+New+Roman+Font for the lazy). Looks terrible on my screen.

Comment by nine_k 7 hours ago

Nice! Also works with Courier and Comic Sans, but, sadly, not with Helvetica.

Comment by cwnyth 6 hours ago

And Arial, Calibri, Georgia, and Cambria. It's missing Linux Libertine fonts, though. So typical.

Comment by loadingcmd 6 hours ago

As the administration steps back from global affairs, it seems the State Department is searching for direction. Rubio would go like - we’re done with managing world affairs via the NSS, what should we do next? Let’s change the font for a new perspective!

Comment by r0ckarong 53 minutes ago

Good thing the world is entirely stable and the United States have literally no more pressing issues.

Comment by Hizonner 6 hours ago

I'm mostly surprised it wasn't Fraktur.

How pitiful do you have to be as Secretary of State to get into minutiae about fonts, anyway?

Comment by 648373628229 2 hours ago

What's wrong with Fraktur?

Comment by maxnoe 2 hours ago

Fraktur is often associated with the German far right, because it's a mostly German thing that nationalists can hang on to.

Funnily enough, it was Goebbels who banned it and required everyone to change to Latin scripts.

Comment by jgalt212 7 hours ago

> The department under Blinken in early January 2023 had switched to Calibri, a modern sans-serif font, saying this was a more accessible font for people with disabilities

That's interesting because I've long been under the impression that serif fonts promoted easier reading. As such, serif fonts could / should be considered more accessible.

Comment by mitchbob 7 hours ago

> Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Biden-era move to the sans serif typeface “wasteful,” casting the return to Times New Roman as part of a push to stamp out diversity efforts.

https://archive.ph/2025.12.10-001235/https://www.nytimes.com...

Comment by nine_k 7 hours ago

To actually reduce waste, they could have switched to a narrower typeface, such as Roboto Condensed. At least it would save some paper occasionally.