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Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
https://archive.md/x0Sxc https://archive.md/x0Sxc
- Hizonner 9mo agoI'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?
- 648373628229 9mo agoWhat's wrong with Fraktur?
- maxnoe 9mo agoFraktur 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.
- tormeh 9mo agoGot to hand it to them - Fraktur is an annoying font. It looks cool, though.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoAs pitiful as the last guy, apparently? As the article says, the decision to switch to Calibri in the first place came directly from Blinken. (I try not to get into anti-anti-Trump discourse, but getting worked up about fonts seems counterproductive to me.)
- unethical_ban 9mo agoNeither of these decisions likely originated with the SoS themselves. I say the reasoning matters, though. You can try to avoid the discourse, but if you're American then you're in it. This administration is destroying the country for many reasons: profit, hatred of democracy, racism, control. And FWIW, it's the current administration foaming at the mouth about a font change, not the last one. In this case, the decision is solely because the last guy did something and they can't let anything from the last administration stand. Let's say, in an alternate universe where Rubio's department genuinely thought there were cost or coordination issues with Calibri. They could have reversed the decision and cited that. But no: Making a font that is more compatible with screen reader technology is woke. Their words, not mine.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo ago"Woke" is not, in fact, their words. The source article doesn't quote Rubio as saying "woke". The NY Times coverage (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-department-font.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-d...) goes into a lot more detail than Reuters, as is typical; they don't publish the full text of the order (IIUC this is common to protect sources), but they say Rubio cited a number of coordination and messaging issues, along with a metric of document accessibility requests which he says did not decrease in the Calibri era. Again, I say this not to nitpick or to dispute that it's kinda silly, but to emphasize that this is a provocation you shouldn't and don't need to rise to. The State Department's font choices do not matter, and it will not hurt anyone nor create a bad permission structure if they use Times New Roman. The only possible way this story could become even a tiny bit consequential is if Democrats take the bait and radicalize against serifs.
- oneeyedpigeon 9mo agoThey definitely did use the term 'DEI', though, which is pretty much interchangeable as far as they're concerned.
- unethical_ban 9mo agoFair point that they didn't say the word woke. I'll own that criticism. I will assert that any justification for this that could be seen as legitimate is wiped away when they write anything about "Calibri is DEI" when there were valid reasons to consider it. And believe me, I am well aware of where this ranks in the list of sins of the administration. It's a very small, very petty action in line with their broader ethos.
- watwut 9mo agoExcept that last guy was not pitiful about and did not had any ideological hateful proclamations. It was choice for slightly better readability on screens. Plus that font was default in word. There were not emotional claims about it. It is entirely valid to make fun of Rubio.
- bakies 9mo agoThis admin does like Roman stuff- like their salute
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- chinathrow 9mo ago> U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor Antony Blinken's decision to adopt Calibri a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters. What a waste of government time and spending.
- throwaway8582 9mo ago> What a waste of government time and spending Was the switch to Calibri in 2023 also a waste of time and money, or are font switches only bad when the Trump administration does them?
- ryoshoe 9mo agoIf the belief is that switching a font is wasteful, why is the solution is to switch fonts again?
- ksynwa 9mo agoCalibri is woke?
- coffeebeqn 9mo agoI guess I’m glad they’re focusing on this rather than breaking something else in society
- chinathrow 9mo agoPoint is they're doing both, at once.
- gmueckl 9mo agoNah, the state department is big enough to do both at the same time - at least it would be at full staffing levels.
- klez 9mo ago
- orthoxerox 9mo agoShould've picked Charis SIL. It's a legible and serious serif font, doesn't make you look like you picked the boring Big Tech default and has explicitly Christian origins.
- 7bit 9mo agoExplicit christian origin sounds like Jesus himself designed the font. But no, it's only the label the institute gave itself. By that measure, I could create a font with explicit godly origin, because I see myself as a direct descendant of God.
- DocTomoe 9mo ago"Decorum" and Times New Roman. That's the equivalent of pointlessly plastering everything with marble and gold, you think you are doing Roman Empire meets Versailles, but ultimately, you're just being tacky.
- vanguardanon 9mo agoI just wanted to add a comment that I never knew but if you google Times New Roman they display the entire Google web search results page in Times New Roman.
- platevoltage 9mo agoWhy is this a story? I'm fairly certain fonts change all of the time. Oh right, it's because they can't just make the change, they have to say something stupid about it. Republican voters, how are you not insulted? Is this really all it takes to get you to that voting booth?
- nelox 9mo agoReuters calling the switch a "font" change instead of a typeface change is troubling, though consistent with a society that now casually refers to all pasta as "spaghetti". A typeface is the design; a font is its specific instance. This is basic knowledge, taught to children, houseplants, and most domesticated goats. A simple correction would stop this spiral, but Reuters appears committed to forging a bold new era in which terminology is chosen at random, like drawing Scrabble tiles from a bag and declaring them journalism.
- fhd2 9mo agoIn my experience, "font" is the colloquial term referring to either. Programmers get to demand precision, for journalists it's a bit tougher. The de facto meaning of terms does, unfortunately, evolve in sometimes arbitrary ways. And it's tough to fight.
- Ghoelian 9mo ago> A typeface is the design; a font is its specific instance. This is basic knowledge, taught to children, houseplants, and most domesticated goats. I didn't know this, and this explanation isn't really helping. (I did know there's a difference between typeface and font, but no idea what). Why would this be basic knowledge when all most people ever have to deal with is the font options in Word?
- dghf 9mo agoOriginally, a font (also spelled fount, at least formerly) was a physical thing: a collection of metal slugs, each bearing the reversed shape of a letter or other symbol (a glyph, in typographical parlance). You would arrange these slugs in a wooden frame, apply a layer of ink to them, and press them against a sheet of paper. The typeface dictated the shapes of those glyphs. So you could own a font of Caslon's English Roman typeface, for example. If you wanted to print text in different sizes, you would need multiple fonts. If you wanted to print in italic as well as roman (upright), you would need another font for that, too. As there was a finite number of slugs available, what text you could print on a single sheet was also constrained to an extent by your font(s). Modern Welsh, for example, has no letter "k": yet mediaeval Welsh used it liberally. The change came when the Bible was first printed in Welsh: the only fonts available were made for English, and didn't have enough k's. So the publisher made the decision to use c for k, and an orthographical rule was born. Digital typography, of course, has none of those constraints: digital text can be made larger or smaller, or heavier or lighter, or slanted or not, by directly manipulating the glyph shapes; and you're not going to run out of a particular letter. So that raises the question: what is a font in digital terms? There appear to be two schools of thought: 1. A font is a typeface at a particular size and in a particular weight etc. So Times New Roman is a typeface, but 12pt bold italic Times New Roman is a font. This attempts to draw parallels with the physical constraints of a moveable-type font. 2. A font is, as it always was, the instantiation of a typeface. In digital terms, this means a font file: a .ttf or .otf or whatever. This may seem like a meaningless distinction, but consider: you can get different qualities of font files for the same typeface. A professional, paid-for font will (or should, at least) offer better kerning and spacing rules, better glyph coverage, etc. And if you want your text italic or bold, or particularly small or particularly large (display text), your software can almost certainly just digitally transform the shapes in your free/cheap, all-purpose font, But you will get better results with a font that has been specifically designed to be small or italic or whatever: text used for small captions, for example, is more legible with a larger x-height and less variation in stroke width than that used for body text. Adobe offers 65 separate fonts for its Minion typeface, in different combinations of italic/roman, weight (regular/medium/semibold/bold), width (regular/condensed) and size (caption/body/subhead/display). Personally, I prefer the second definition.
- OhMeadhbh 9mo agoThis makes me want to run for President on the platform of Comic Sans for all government documents.
- gverrilla 9mo agoDog whistle for transphobic people.
- pengaru 9mo agoIf only this administration would limit its actions to such forms of bikeshedding...
- 3836293648 9mo agoThe motivation is truly awful, but the result? Thank goodness. Calibri just screams unprofessional
- thih9 9mo ago> To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products… Who defines decorum and professionalism? Because I’d say this change is anything but. Then again, this is very partisan and so subjective. Still, I’m not a fan of a government pushing certain esthetics with such a BS justification.
- goku12 9mo agoNot exactly related, but this is also the government that keeps insisting that the tariffs are paid by the foreign exporters (now that's a BS justification by any government that warrants widespread panic). It's all about narratives. I wouldn't bother much with fact checking them.
- Cryptoclidus 9mo agoBullshit looks better with serifs?
- wiz21c 9mo agoreally good 1st of April joke !!! rotfl ahem... We're not the 1st of April...
- LucasFonts 9mo agoOur studio, LucasFonts, designed Calibri. Here are our CEO Luc(as) de Groot’s thoughts on the matter: The decision to abandon Calibri on the grounds of it being a so-called “wasteful diversity font” is both amusing and regrettable. Calibri was specifically designed to enhance readability on modern computer screens and was selected by Microsoft in 2007 to replace Times New Roman as the default font in the Office suite. There were sound reasons for moving away from Times: Calibri performs exceptionally well at small sizes and on standard office monitors, whereas serif fonts like Times New Roman tend to appear more distorted. While serif fonts are well-suited to high-resolution displays, such as those found on modern smartphones, on typical office screens the serifs introduce unnecessary visual noise and can be particularly problematic for users with impaired vision, such as older adults. Professional typography can be achieved with both serif and sans-serif fonts. However, Times New Roman—a typeface older than the current president—presents unique challenges. Originally crafted in Great Britain for newspaper printing, Times was optimised for paper, with each letterform meticulously cut and tested for specific sizes. In the digital era, larger size drawings were repurposed as models, resulting in a typeface that appears too thin and sharp when printed at high quality. Serif fonts are often perceived as more traditional, but they are also more demanding to use effectively. While a skilled typographer can, in theory, produce excellent results with Times, using it in its default digital form is not considered professional practice. Calibri, by contrast, incorporates extensive spacing adjustments and language-specific refinements. The digital version of Times New Roman, developed in the early days of computing, offers only minimal kerning and letter-pair adjustments. This is especially evident in words set in all capitals—such as “CHICAGO”—where the spacing is inconsistent: the letters “HIC” are tightly packed, while “CAG” are spaced too far apart. Microsoft cannot rectify these issues without altering the appearance of existing documents.
- ndsipa_pomu 9mo agoI'm surprised he didn't get Hugo Boss to design a font
- amluto 9mo agoIMO Calibri and Times New Roman are both poor choices: they are not free. The US Government’s works are not generally subject to copyright, and IMO it’s rather obnoxious for their fonts to be restricted. Also, Calibri is specifically a Microsoft font, and maybe the government should be a bit less beholden to Microsoft. IMO the government should pick something available under an appropriate free license or commission a new font for the purpose. (I personally much prefer Times New Roman to Calibri for printed documents, but that’s neither here nor there.)
- tobr 9mo agoUS Gov already has an ”official” open source typeface, Public Sans. https://public-sans.digital.gov/ https://public-sans.digital.gov/ Unfortunately, it’s also intended to be not just accessible, but ”principles-driven”. Can’t have that. (More seriously, it’s probably more appropriate for screens than print)
- AlanYx 9mo agoThis is my view as well. That being said, Time New Roman is marginally better because there are several good, modern open source alternatives with the same metrics that can be substituted. And there's good tool support virtually everywhere for those alternatives, like in TeX. There is a metric-compatible open alternative to Calibri (Carlito) but it seems more vulnerable to lawyer shenanigans and doesn't have extensive tool support.
- FinnKuhn 9mo agoWhich Times New Roman alternatives would you recommend?
- aqrit 9mo agoMS makes "Times New Roman" available (at no cost), but not "Calibri".
- Stratoscope 9mo agoAdditional reporting from Gizmodo: Marco Rubio Orders State Dept to Stop Using Calibri Font in Anti-DEI Push https://gizmodo.com/marco-rubio-orders-state-dept-to-stop-using-calibri-font-in-anti-dei-push-2000698012 https://gizmodo.com/marco-rubio-orders-state-dept-to-stop-us...
- thinkindie 9mo agoI'm amazed by all these silly priorities some people can find.
- GeorgeRichard 9mo ago>>decorum and professionalism Yes, the hallmark of the Trump administration.
- oneeyedpigeon 9mo agoI'm definitely not suggesting someone make one, but Rubio sounds like an awfully good name for a font...
- HackerThemAll 9mo agoNoto Serif would have been a better choice, it is far more readable and is capable of representing all languages in the world. But then it's bigger, for example to replace Time New Roman 10 it would require Noto Serif 8.5.
- martin_a 9mo agoBesides all the daily stuff that happens with the current US government, I'm _really_ excited (not in the best way) to see how the citizens of the USA, Europe and the whole world will deal with the aftermaths of the current government. Strange times to live in.
- jennyholzer 9mo agoI am staunchly anti-Republican. In my opinion, the sole cultural domain in which Republicans are far stronger than Democrats is graphic design. If you do not have a strong graphic design background, I'd urge you to avoid taking sides on this matter on the basis of party affiliation. This is good politics from the Republicans. In my opinion it is disastrous for Democrats to align themselves with mediocre cultural products. Microsoft has a very close relationship with the US government and over the last 20+ years has demonstrated extremely low quality standards. The US government's shift to using Calibri is clearly a consequence of this close relationship. Claims about the "readability" of Calibri in comparison to Times New Roman are spurious and unverifiable; very seriously type foundries say things this about every single new typeface released. Frankly, Calibri is an ugly and poorly designed typeface. It is Microsoft's Vista-era Helvetica dupe. It is inferior to Times New Roman. If you're defending Calibri over the most popular typeface of all time, I hope it's (somehow) coming from an aesthetically minded place
- picafrost 9mo agoThis will make much more sense when the US announces its move away from Arabic numerals (too diverse) back to Roman numerals.
- indymike 9mo agoReminds me of the Postal Service spending billions to change the logo from a stylized eagle to a... stylized eagle.
- nomdep 9mo agoI figured the big scandal would be some bloated government contract shelling out millions for Calibri licenses. But nope, turns out the guy just… doesn’t like the font. What an absolute clown show.
- reneberlin 9mo ago"To serif or not to serif?" that is now a question of our Times.
- dboreham 9mo agoSee also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiqua%E2%80%93Fraktur_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiqua%E2%80%93Fraktur_disput...
- jurjo 9mo agoFor a moment I thought it had something to do with "Cuadernillos Rubio" [1]. They are small workbooks quite common in Spain for kids to learn how to write. However, the font they use is not Times New Roman... [1] https://www.amazon.es/-/en/gp/product/8417427627?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tcom_9&storeType=ebooks https://www.amazon.es/-/en/gp/product/8417427627?ref_=dbs_m_...
- anonym29 9mo agoGlad my government continues to work hard on solving the important problems that affect real people like me.
- stevetron 9mo agoWhich Times does Rubio want: There's a NY version, and a Chicago version. I got politely informed to not use NYTimes font in a paper I turned-in when I was in college. On that occasion, it was an accident. I'd taken the file to school to print, and my owiginal font selection had been replaced by the default. My professor merely said that it is hard to read by people with older eyes. Several years later, I understand. My default font is now set for Liberation Sans. I have trouble reading 'decorative' fonts. For printouts, I use Liberation Mono.
- Thorrez 9mo agoAre you saying there are multiple fonts named "Times New Roman"? I can't seem to find any reference to this online.
- ecopoesis 9mo agoToday is a good day to learn about Nazi Germany's Normal Type Decree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwabacher#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwabacher#History
- mgkimsal 9mo agoMake Arial Great Again
- queuebert 9mo agoI'm glad to see that a government elected by rural, blue-collar workers is tackling the issues those workers care most about. /s
- woliveirajr 9mo agoAnd now I know why the default font was changed in Word. Arg. Don't think I like Times New Roman but it was the recommend font for academic papers in Brazil (and the recommendation still persists).
- mathgradthrow 9mo agoHere's the actual memo, in case you want to read it yourself and form your own conclusions: https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/12/state-department-return-to-tradition.text https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/12/state-department-ret...
- m000 9mo agoGood news: At least he didn't order the department to use Computer Modern. Bad news: Missed opportunity for Fraktur to make a comeback.
- Klaus23 9mo agoGood, and not because of the diversity drama that the US government wants to shoehorn in here. Any font that makes the uppercase "i" and the lowercase "L" look the same is absolute garbage. Yes, I have a strong opinion about this!
- jcalvinowens 9mo agoThe verbiage in the PR reminds me of a bit from The Night Watch [1]: > [...] and at some point, you will have to decide whether serifs are daring statements of modernity, or tools of hegemonic oppression that implicitly support feudalism and illiteracy [1] https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1311_05-08_mickens.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1311_05-08_mickens.pdf
- Adrock 9mo agoSurprised they didn’t go with .
- paradox460 9mo agoRegardless of the reasons why, I'm glad. I cannot stand calibri. It's one of the ugliest fonts I've ever had to use, somehow looking uglier than even joke fonts like comic sans
- benjaminwai 9mo agoI am surprised they haven't come up with their own Truth font instead. "Everything is written in Truth".
- michaelhoney 9mo agoThey'll change it to blackletter next
- ggm 9mo agoBut you [sometimes] still have to use courier filing in the courts?
- CaliforniaKarl 9mo agoYou follow the style guide or rules for the court in which you are filing. The US Supreme Court, for example, does not use Courier.
- IAmBroom 9mo agoPretty soon they'll only accept crayon.
- dragonwriter 9mo agoThe Supreme Court requires Century (which for any use other than maybe a newspaper is infinitely better than Times New Roman—and for a newspaper, Times is better than TNR.)
- itsjustjordan 9mo agoSlightly related but today I learned if you Google a font the site changes to that font.
- manoDev 9mo agoHilarious. It could be a Mike Judge script.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ranger_danger 9mo ago"Do I look like I know what a jay-peg is?"
- rsynnott 9mo agoThis is Michael Scott levels of managerial nonsense, bloody hell. Is Trump incapable of hiring anyone borderline competent?
- QuercusMax 9mo agoThe only thing these morons understand are surface level appearances. That's why we have so many TV people. - Trump: The Apprentice - Defense: Hegseth: Fox News - Transportation: Sean Duffy: Real World / Road Rules - Education: Linda McMahon: WWE (yes, wrestling) ... I don't feel like going any further, it's too depressing. Edit: I just realized that Duffy is SecTrans because he was on Road Rules.
- jazzyjackson 9mo agoI don't know that being a contestant in a couple of reality tv shows in college makes Sean Duffy a TV person McMahon on the other hand was founder and president of WWE
- butvacuum 9mo agoDear Lord... I'd not picked up on this- if true (I need to validate it for myself).
- QuercusMax 9mo agoI forgot Dr. Oz, who is in charge of Health and Human Services. Lots of articles about this; here's a random one: https://deadline.com/gallery/fox-news-personalities-trump-white-house-list/ https://deadline.com/gallery/fox-news-personalities-trump-wh...
- jazzyjackson 9mo agoSecretary of HHS is RFk Jr, oz is in charge of Medicare and Medicaid
- 9mo ago
- slater 9mo agoStopped clock, twice right?
- soupfordummies 9mo ago"[Rubio] ...calling his predecessor Antony Blinken's decision to adopt Calibri a "wasteful" diversity move..." Bro what. It was the default font in Microsoft for many years thus, it was the default font for most office software for many years -- just like Times New Roman was before. What.
- QuercusMax 9mo agoThe article says it's better than Times New Roman because it's easier to read for those with disabilities - so of course the government needs to make things worse for them. Wonder if someone could sue over these kinds of changes that are being deliberately made to be less accessible.
- wvbdmp 9mo agoIs that even true? The article is really vague on the type of disability and basically just claims that serifs are harder to read. Generally sans-serif is advisable for small sizes, although I assume the main things are large open counters, tall x-height and low stroke contrast. I’ve often read that dyslexics favor strongly distinctive characters and “grounded”, bottom-heavy letterforms. I feel like serifs actually sound pretty good there. It’s also important to consider whether such studies were conducted before or after high-PPI displays became prevalent and leveled the playing field for serifs.
- benterix 9mo agoThe wiki explicitly mension the typical sans disadvantage: "One potential source of confusion in Calibri is a visible homoglyph, a pair of easily confused characters: the lowercase letter L and the uppercase letter i (l and I) of the Latin script are effectively indistinguishable." So while I prefer Calibri as TNR has been the default for longer and hence is more boring to me, I can understand people might prefer a serif font for readability.
- xtiansimon 9mo agoYeah. I have a dis-a-bility. It’s now 2200 and I’ve been working since 0830. My eyes are tired and these 8’s look like 0’s, 5’s look like 6’s. What a tool. Now! Everything in Fraktur! HH.
- bigtones 9mo agoI had to check this was actually Reuters and not The Onion. eye roll
- chuckadams 9mo agoApparently sans-serif is "woke" or something. Cleek's Law meets Poe's.
- techblueberry 9mo agoWhat was wasted?
- ranger_danger 9mo agohttps://2021-2025.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-on-nprs-wait-wait-dont-tell-me/ https://2021-2025.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-on-np... Secretary Antony Blinken on NPR's Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me! About the U.S. Department of State moving from Times New Roman to Calibri.
- whoisthemachine 9mo agoCompare this: > calling his predecessor Antony Blinken's decision to adopt Calibri a "wasteful" diversity move to > SECRETARY BLINKEN: First, I’m called to make very weighty decisions (inaudible). > QUESTION: Oh. Type joke. > SECRETARY BLINKEN: And I’m always trying to be a font of wisdom, (inaudible). Just... ugh. People voted for all of this non-stop vitriol? I'd like to have a post that added something meaningful but all I have to add is frustration with humanity.
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoHis boss' posts on Truth Social should be in Comic Sans.
- Gualdrapo 9mo agoJust remember that when the CERN announced they finally could prove the existence of the Higgs boson, they did it using Comic Sans https://blog.scottlogic.com/2012/07/05/the-higgs-boson-comic-sans-and-my-15-minutes-of-twitter-fame.html https://blog.scottlogic.com/2012/07/05/the-higgs-boson-comic...
- SanjayMehta 9mo agoIf Trump finds out he'll start "truthing" in Comic Sans and expecting a Nobel Prize in Physics.
- elashri 9mo agoTo be honest, in the official papers they did not use it for either CMS or ATLAS.
- idatum 9mo agoI love how people are passionate about fonts. Search for the 2017 Saturday Night Live skit with Ryan Gosling "Papyrus". It captures the obsession! "It’s like they spent $300 million on the movie, and then.. They just used Papyrus."
- jaredklewis 9mo ago“Sometimes I get emotional over fonts.” - Kanye West
- seba_dos1 9mo agoSadly, in this particular case, it's not the font that they are obsessed about.
- chrisweekly 9mo agoyes! the first one^1 is hilarious! the sequel^2 is somehow equally funny. 1. https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?si=jq6NsPhnzwCKXFPr https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?si=jq6NsPhnzwCKXFPr 2. https://youtu.be/Q8PdffUfoF0?si=sx8XC0X6oJqJIXmc https://youtu.be/Q8PdffUfoF0?si=sx8XC0X6oJqJIXmc
- fhdkweig 9mo agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ from 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8PdffUfoF0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8PdffUfoF0 from 2024
- tyre 9mo agoMy friends and I still reference "Shakira merch" from that sketch
- TehCorwiz 9mo ago[flagged]
- elzbardico 9mo agoI like serif fonts, but never liked Times New Roman too much. Printed, in high resolution, it is kind of ok, but I absolutely abhor it on displays. Which is where we read things 99% of the time nowadays.
- carlosjobim 9mo agoGeorgia, Palantino, Bookerly. Those are high quality serif fonts which suits every occasion.
- treetalker 9mo agoButterick on TNR: (https://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman-alternatives.html 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 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.
- nalnq 9mo agoThe 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.
- Zafira 9mo agoAptos has been the default font for Microsoft Word since 2023.
- js2 9mo agoPreviously: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri 207 points|danso|3 years ago|256 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34427504 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34427504
- porridgeraisin 9mo agoHN commentors on this font change harp on about how it's a waste of time (which it of course is), but that font change seemed to receive a more bland reaction. Funny.
- causal 9mo agoWell yeah? It's not about the font, it's about the pettiness of the declared reasons for the reversal
- impure 9mo ago[flagged]
- istillcantcode 9mo ago[flagged]
- mitchbob 9mo 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/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-department-font.html https://archive.ph/2025.12.10-001235/https://www.nytimes.com...
- nine_k 9mo agoTo actually reduce waste, they could have switched to a narrower typeface, such as Roboto Condensed. At least it would save some paper occasionally.
- gjvc 9mo agoRoboto Condensed is excellent. It saves space so more words can be read with each eye movement (saccades) and is very clear. see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_in_reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_in_reading
- anigbrowl 9mo agoWhile 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'.
- Spivak 9mo agoLike the choice of typeface is of literally no importance whatsoever but it is also the funniest thing in the world that there is now a DEI font.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- rtpg 9mo agoThe thing is that some section of the right has convinced itself that Calibre is some DEI font. Meanwhile the rest of the world is just living life and having to deal with people getting this worked up about the default font of Microsoft Office since what, 2008? Parallel universes
- mullingitover 9mo agoIt's incredibly generous to so many future plaintiffs to have this overt hostility to the very concept of accessibility and fairness and put in writing, so many times and in so many ways.
- softgrow 9mo agoAs documented at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_Easter_eggs 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 https://www.google.com/search?q=Times+New+Roman+Font for the lazy). Looks terrible on my screen.
- nine_k 9mo agoNice! Also works with Courier and Comic Sans, but, sadly, not with Helvetica.
- jacobgkau 9mo agoTo be honest, the first moment I saw the page, it did seem to give my eyes a negative reaction, but after reading a few of the results, it started to look fine pretty quickly.
- vintermann 9mo agoI think it mostly depends on what we're used to and what our associations are. Many computer science people I respect are huge typeface nerds, but personally I could never see much value in focusing on it.
- jgalt212 9mo 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.
- ChrisArchitect 9mo ago[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46212438 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46212438
- loadingcmd 9mo agoAs 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!
- platevoltage 9mo agoGotta get that typeface looking good before the regime change starts.
- seanmcdirmid 9mo agoTimes New Roman is an old perspective. It’s all part of Trump’s plan to take America back to 1950 and pretend 2050 isn’t coming up.
- xdennis 9mo agoFrom the article: > The department under Blinken in early January 2023 had switched to Calibri
- jasonlotito 9mo agoTimes New Roman existed in 1950. Your comment does not in ANY way contest the parent comment.
- morshu9001 9mo agoSo did sans serif fonts
- WastedCucumber 9mo agoI think the comment points to the other possible motivation - undo everything that was done under the Biden admin out of principle/spite.
- 9mo ago
- Terretta 9mo agoThis change sounds like that "waste, fraud, and abuse" stuff. If you add up all the government memos, forms, letters, contracts, publications, everything printed globally… “wow. many serif. so pointy. much ink. such waste!” — Kabosu, probably
- zzo38computer 9mo agoCalibri 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.
- ensocode 9mo agoha ha MAGA font. Only big letters
- thiht 9mo agoTHE BEST LETTERS
- RobotToaster 9mo agoI've always found serif fonts easier to read, although I prefer Baskerville over Times.
- adrian_b 9mo agoYou are right, but if legibility had been the reason for change, Times New Roman is a rather poor choice, even if better than Calibri. Among Microsoft typefaces, Georgia would have been much better than Times New Roman, especially when read on displays, but even when printed. There are of course even better choices, but Georgia is a familiar typeface for most people, it is similar enough to Times New Roman and the older versions of Georgia are free to use by anybody. Georgia is not as condensed as Times New Roman, but here Times New Roman is the anomaly, as it is more condensed than a normal font, for the purpose of fitting within narrow newspaper columns. From Windows 3.0 to Windows 98, I have used Times New Roman as my main text font in documents, because Windows did not include anything better, but immediately after the introduction of the superior Georgia I replaced Times New Roman with it for some years, until eventually I stopped relying on the bundled typefaces and I have bought some typefaces that I liked more, for use in all my documents. (Windows 3.0 did not have yet TTF fonts, with which the licensed Times New Roman was introduced later, but it already had a metrically equivalent Times font).
- r0ckarong 9mo agoGood thing the world is entirely stable and the United States have literally no more pressing issues.
- layer8 9mo agoSerifs should improve stability.
- alexandre_m 9mo agoWas the world stable in 2023 when the font change occured?
- RajBhai 9mo agoI have a couple of thoughts about this. Firstly, I thought sans-serif typefaces were encouraged for digital media because they read better than serif fonts. But now that high pixel density displays have permeated the market, this might be a moot point. On another note, I wonder how much of the hate TNR gets stems from its ubiquity for having been installed on almost all personal computers for the past n decades. Paganis are beautifully designed cars, but the labelling of buttons and toggles inside the center console look cheap (IMO) because their font seems straight out of a quickly made flyer designed by bored teacher who just discovered Word Art.
- Cipater 9mo agoPagani interiors look so plastic and tacky. Why do they make the interior of such beautiful, expensive cars look so cheap?
- IAmBroom 9mo agoMy understanding has always been that serif fonts read better for long text, and sans-serif for short text - so signage in Arial and policy statements in Times New Roman. And Comic Sans for letters sent to friends finishing design school, obviously. There are all sorts of statistical rules falling out of studies about where the long/short divide is, ambient lighting, blah blah blah - but human vision is even more variable than most biological quantities, so in the end general rules are the best one can really do. Here of course, it's nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs, while the captain targets the next iceberg "to teach the ice a lesson!"
- shagie 9mo ago> And Comic Sans for letters sent to friends finishing design school, obviously. ... and libressl. https://web.archive.org/web/20140625075722/http://www.libressl.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140625075722/http://www.libres... (and the talk - https://youtu.be/GnBbhXBDmwU?si=gMlhb2Xis5V8sR6K&t=2939 https://youtu.be/GnBbhXBDmwU?si=gMlhb2Xis5V8sR6K&t=2939 )
- nixpulvis 9mo agoI want to read a study that compares what readers estimate for much effort was put into producing the same page of text in two contemporary and basic serif and sans-serif fonts. My hypothesis is that the serif font is viewed as more polished or refined, and therefore the result of more hours of work. But I could be wrong. This is in-line with the advice here to use serif for long form and sans for short. When you're making signs and things like that, you don't have the repeated forms to inform your ability to interpret letters, so the serifs act to confuse readers, while in long form, they add flair, which could be more artistic and tasteful.
- tyleo 9mo agoNever before has a font change been so politically divisive. I’ll personally be taking my votes to supporters of Helvetica next election.
- hnarn 9mo agoHelvetica is great for signage, but in my opinion it isn't great for longer texts.
- dghf 9mo agoWasn't it originally intended for signage, advertising, titles, other display text, etc., rather than for body text?
- oneeyedpigeon 9mo agoMaybe not, but the BBC's use (and subsequent dropping) of Gill Sans comes close!
- hbogert 9mo agoThe left and right signalling is such a waste of everyone's time and effort. Reactive pettiness
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- miltonlost 9mo agoIs it "signalling" when the left's change was for an accessibility reason, to enable more people to be able to easily read? Signaling means there's no tangible benefit to the change, so the Blinken's switch to a sans-serif font would not be signaling. Rubio, however, specifically pointed out the symbolic (and malicious) gesture of his whole switch back to Times New Roman. The left didn't react pettily. Please stop thinking the left are the right are the same when the facts show they are not. The left's change was for a demonstrative benefit. The right is doing it so fuck over people. You think these are the same.
- JetSetWilly 9mo ago[flagged]
- oneeyedpigeon 9mo agoNote that, even if that's all true (and I do agree that studies should have been conducted), the two positions are: a) We made this change because we think it will help certain people and b) We made this change because we fundamentally disagree with attempts to help certain people, whether effective or not I think b) is a lot worse than a). Or, to put it another way, has the current administration demonstrated a benefit from this change, or are they behaving at least as badly as "the left"?
- JetSetWilly 9mo agoNo, you're just falling into the sort of left wing "people who disagree with me can only do so because they are a bad person" trap. You can read the full text of the actual memo (and a reasonable interpretation of it) below, but it appears to me that the principle reason as stated is that Calibri is less professional, inconsistent with all other government communications and even inconsistent letterheads on the very same department's material, and that appearance matters. It isn't in fact about "sticking it to the woke", but it does seem like the original decision to use Calibri was not based on anything and just about appearing to be woke. https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/full_text_of_marco_rubio_state_dept_directive_times_new_roman https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/full_text_of_marco_rubio_...
- cratermoon 9mo agoSpeaking of DEI: Stanley Morison, the inventor of Times New Roman, in collaboration with Victor Lardent, was one of the founders of The Guild of the Pope's Peace, an organization created to promote Pope Benedict XV's calls for peace in the face of the First World War. On the imposition of conscription in 1916 during First World War, he was a conscientious objector, and was imprisoned. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Morison#Early_life_and_career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Morison#Early_life_and...>
- cratermoon 9mo agoIs it too off-topic or controversial to note that in January 1941 in an edict signed by Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler, the Nazis called for a ban on the future use of Judenlettern (Jewish fonts) like Fraktur? <https://web.archive.org/web/20151207071605/http://historyweird.com/1941-nazis-ban-jewish-fonts/ https://web.archive.org/web/20151207071605/http://historywei...>
- sombragris 9mo agoI support the change, though the rationale used for it seems to me to be nonsense. Times New Roman might not be the world's most beautiful font, but at least is a little bit less atrocious than Calibri (which is awful). So, whatever the rationale invoked, I welcome the change. Sometimes, when I have to work on documents which will be shared with many users, I use Times New Roman as serif, and Arial as a sans serif. Both choices are (admittedly in my very subjective opinion) better than Calibri, and it's almost guaranteed that every PC will have these fonts available, or at least exact metric equivalents of them.
- gowld 9mo agoCalibri was the default MS Word from 2007 until July 2023, when Aptos took over. Calibri became the State font in Jan 2023.
- seydor 9mo agoDoes that mean there will be a Times Caesar , a Times Lady , a Times Mistress and Universal Times new Rome Time? What a Time to be alive
- Bender 9mo agoPerhaps it is time to get traction on "tabs vs spaces". /s If they want to look like a proper government then the correct answer is monospace and in ALL CAPS just like FAA NOTAMS, obviously.
- ebbi 9mo ago[flagged]
- youngNed 9mo agoBut.... and this is important, it's not funny. "Here is a thing that makes a slight difference, with no cost, to a small percentage of people" "Nah, woke. Let's make it worse for them." There is nothing funny about performative cruelty
- groundzeros2015 9mo ago[flagged]
- the_gastropod 9mo agoLet's even say (incorrectly, probably) that the switch to Calibri was "performative" or "virtue signaling". That's, in my opinion, significantly less terrible than performative cruelty or anti-virtue signaling.
- AshleyGrant 9mo agoIf you had read the article, you would know the answer to this question. Calibri is a font designed to be easier to read on screens, which is where documents are primarily read in 2025. Switching to using Calibri as the default was a meaningful change that provided improved accessibility at literally no cost to anyone. Switching back to Times New Roman, a serif font that is provably more difficult to read on screens is yet another act of performative cruelty by this administration who seemingly operates with "the cruelty is the point" as one of its core tenets.
- groundzeros2015 9mo agoIs screen readability the only value to consider? > If you had read the article Please read the rules.
- HPsquared 9mo agoDoes anyone else like to change the font on news articles using Inspect Element? Also in Word etc, if I've got to spend a lot of time in a large document, I'll usually edit the paragraph body style temporarily to something sans serif. It's just better on screen.
- steanne 9mo agoi change it with refont https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refont/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refont/
- lateforwork 9mo ago> Does anyone else like to change the font on news articles using Inspect Element? Yes, for sites that use unreadably thin fonts, such as https://stratechery.com https://stratechery.com
- School-Cotton 9mo agoFunnily enough this story, despite extolling the virtues of sans-serif fonts for reading on screens, is typeset in a serif font.
- infotainment 9mo agoI still can’t believe they switched to Calibri at all; the only people who should be using Calibri are people who don’t realize that Microsoft Word lets you pick other fonts. I do wish they’d gone for a classier serif though; Garamond was right there.
- adamhartenz 9mo agoYou think the US govenment would go for a French typeface?
- weinzierl 9mo agoTo be fair, they did choose a Roman one - one with proper Italics even.
- askew 9mo agoA "thank you" for La Liberté éclairant le monde.
- ben_w 9mo agoThere's a certain je ne sais quoi to the US government's relationship with France. Le problème avec les Américains, c'est qu'ils n'ont pas de mot pour «entrepreneur».
- publicdebates 9mo agoI'm a Kings Caslon kinda guy myself. Partial to those more practical fonts. Can't beat 1800s print, they perfected the art by that point.
- throw03172019 9mo agoI’m surprised this administration did not chose Comic Sans as the default font.
- user____name 9mo agoRubio looks more like a Papyrus person.
- alamortsubite 9mo agoCan Comic Sans do all caps?
- pinkmuffinere 9mo agoWhen I read the headline i thought “well obviously they don’t mean Marco Rubio, there must be some famous publicist or something”. Cannot believe it actually was Marco Rubio, lol
- n3storm 9mo agowith current timeline expect the unexpected
- wavemode 9mo agoThe entire thing literally reads like an Onion piece. If I'd read this exact article in The Onion I would've considered it brilliant comedy.
- wvh 9mo agoIt's becoming increasingly hard to distinguish an Onion article from actual media. Post-truth indeed.
- vintermann 9mo agoSpending time on something like this suggests he doesn't actually have much to do besides throwing his power around.
- rjzzleep 9mo agoPeople will often use their power to do seemingly meaningless things, when they don't know how to solve the actual problems on their plate.
- mcny 9mo agoMarco Rubio famously doesn't have the authority to do what is arguably his job. > Trump envoy Witkoff reportedly advised Kremlin official on Ukraine peace deal A more dignified Secretary of State would have resigned when this news surfaced.
- gravy 9mo agoDidn't I read somewhere that serif fonts are better for dyslexia
- int0x29 9mo agoAh yes Calibri is now "DEI". Rubio don't you have a real job?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- yincrash 9mo agoEven if you believe the previous administration switching fonts was virtue signaling, then by the same logic you have to also believe this is just virtue signalling.
- aprilthird2021 9mo agoYep, I've seen what craziness happens when the admin is woke, and I've seen the craziness when it's "anti-woke" and I preferred woke. At least woke didn't kidnap people into unmarked vans for writing a college newspaper article. I don't agree with woke, but they won't send me to Guatemala torture prison bc I don't agree
- cogman10 9mo agoI'm really out of the loop on this. What virtue is being signaled by who? I know people get real touchy about fonts, but I have a hard time understanding why this is even a news article.
- epolanski 9mo agoBecause politicians are making political choices on fonts rather than leaving those matters to technicians.
- lurk2 9mo agoCalibri is a Sans Serif font and because it has been the default Microsoft Office font for more than a decade, it is fake email job haver coded (i.e. it appeals to young and middle-aged women who work in HR, this demographic being predominantly Democrat). Times New Roman is a Serif font which looks old and official to cater to boomers and has Roman in it to appeal to Zoomers who want to RETVRN with a V to tradition. (I didn’t read the article as this is a non-story, but I’m definitely right).
- tom_ 9mo agoAs if anybody would be daft enough to deny that you are of course absolutely right, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-department-font.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-d... has this additional detail: > Mr. Rubio's directive, under the subject line "Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,"
- vvpan 9mo agoHow far has the migration away from TNR to Calibri progressed? Is it redoing everything or is it just abandoning an incomplete ongoing migration that mostly just started?
- epolanski 9mo agoThis feels like dystopia, sane management or administrations should delegate this stuff to experts, not politicians. We live in the world were everything is now "vibed" really.
- WhyOhWhyQ 9mo agoIs Calibri actually more accessible? Every step of this story seems pointless and fake.
- jimbob45 9mo agoAnecdotal but the new default Office font Aptos seems much better than both TNR and Calibri.
- papercrane 9mo agoOne of the reasons Calibri was selected over Times New Roman was it has a lower rate of OCR transcription errors, making documents using it easier for people using screen readers.
- blueflow 9mo agoLink on that, as OCR should be more reliable with Times New Roman due to significant serifs.
- papercrane 9mo agoThe memo at the time said the serifs can cause OCR issues. https://x.com/John_Hudson/status/1615486871571935232 https://x.com/John_Hudson/status/1615486871571935232
- opo 9mo agoJust because they claimed it, doesn't make it true. OCR and screen reader software in 2023 did not have problems with serifs.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- orwin 9mo agoI don't have link on that, but the main difficulty with OCR isn't the OCR part (not anymore at least), it's the "clean up" part, and serifs are a pain in the ass, especially on sightly crumpled paper. My use case was an ERP plugin that digitalized and read to receipt to autofill reimbursement demands, and since most receipt use sans-serif fonts, it was mostly fine, but some jokers use serifed font (mostly on receipts you get when using cash, not credit card receipts) and the error rate jumped from like 1% to 13% (not sure about the 1%, it might be a story i told myself to make me feel better, it was a decade ago, before i pivoted to network from AI. I always take the best decision it seems)
- anilakar 9mo ago> present a unified, professional voice in all communications Might want to start by banning tweeting then.
- ModernMech 9mo agoProfessionalism: "Quiet piggy. Are you stupid? You don't have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that. You're a terrible reporter. Horrible. Insubordinate. You're ugly both inside and out, and a nasty person."
- hs586 9mo agoI just realized that if you google the font (e.g. "Calibri font"), you get the search results in that font. Neat!
- _bohm 9mo agoWorks for lots of other fonts too :)
- Havoc 9mo agoThis is why I'm seriously considering learning Chinese. Next 50 years won't be US lead. When senior government officials are spending time & public mindshare/attention on whether a particular font is or is not diverse then you know it is game over. The details don't matter...this being a topic at all is the news
- CodingJeebus 9mo agoRead up on the state of the Chinese economy, it’s not a given they’ll be in the drivers seat long term either.
- Havoc 9mo agoI know they're leveraged to the hilt, their demographics are shaky AF etc. ...but end of the day productive capacity is what matters. I don't see anyone close on that mix of pace, tech, low cost, ability to execute and scale. A strong argument could be made on any of those metrics that someone could beat them fair and square, but the whole blend...there is nobody even competing in same league and that lead looks like it'll last rest of my lifetime
- A_D_E_P_T 9mo ago> their demographics are shaky AF Every major country's demographics are shaky. Japan and S.Korea are already shrinking. The US is propped up by, uh, low-quality immigration, and fertility has nevertheless dropped to record lows. The large countries of Europe are either basket-cases, tinderboxes, or both. Germany and Italy haven't had above-replacement TFR since 1970! China's not doing great, but having a population reservoir of 1.4B can make up for a lot of deficiencies. If everybody shrinks or becomes utterly dysfunctional, I'd bet that a vast, productive, essentially monoethnic nation weathers the storm better than the rest.
- Untit1ed 9mo agoYou certainly won't have to worry about them changing fonts as easily...
- 9mo ago
- mhd 9mo agoDon't a lot of courts use/mandate Century? Just use that. Better than TNR. If you can't afford a custom font…
- deadbabe 9mo agoSimilarly, under the Biden administration there was a push for memory safety and adopting the Rust programming language. Now memory safety sounds too woke, and Trump administration will be moving back to pure C.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- throwacct 9mo agoCould anyone please explain how this is "news" worthy? There are literally more pressing issues (inflation, wars, etc), and covering this is asinine, to say the least.
- jazzyjackson 9mo agoThe story is that people with better things to do are spending their time on this
- marcusverus 9mo agoThis argument has never, in all of human history, been made in good faith.
- legitster 9mo ago> "To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface." So to reiterate, the department decided to move on from the 1992 default Word font to the 2007 Word default (1 year after it was no longer the default). Nothing is safe from politics when even a font choice has become "woke".
- embedding-shape 9mo ago> https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/addressing-security-risks-from-price-fixing-and-anti-competitive-behavior-in-the-food-supply-chain/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/addr... > window.getComputedStyle(document.querySelector('.entry-content > p')).fontFamily > '"Instrument Sans", sans-serif' I guess The White House hasn't received the memo yet about how important serifs is for "presenting a unified, professional voice in all communications". What a joke.
- Havoc 9mo agoUS has genuinely lost it It genuinely feels like someone worked out that you don't actually need to build a better stealth bomber than the B2. You just need to infiltrate government enough to have them debate what fonts are woke Then I think "nah surely not. can't be that easy". And then next week...another insane thing comes out of US republican camp. I'm starting to think one does indeed not need B2s to defeat an enemy
- rootusrootus 9mo agoGo visit the popular hangouts for folks of the far right persuasion and you learn pretty quickly that this stuff is absolutely important to them, and they get spun up about it. What you don't see discussed is policy. It's almost 100% outrage about cultural issues and pretty much any reason to hate the left. Never substance. To be fair, in response to this dynamic the left has gotten pretty good at focusing on hate for the other side, too. We all lose when nobody wants to talk policy any more.
- apercu 9mo agoThe current administration will do anything to distract folks from the corruption, fraud, grift and incompetence. And it works!
- weinzierl 9mo agoLeaders and typefaces: In 1941 Adolf Hitler personally gave order to make the use of the Antiqua mandatory and forbade the use of Fraktur and Schwabacher typefaces. https://ligaturix.de/bormann.htm https://ligaturix.de/bormann.htm
- blueflow 9mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- denkmoon 9mo agoFascism relies on politicisation of aesthetic
- PaulHoule 9mo agoSee V is for Vendetta, I would argue there is a sort of seduction in the Baudrillard sense involved.
- actionfromafar 9mo agoHow is that downvoted? You can’t seriously disagree?
- renewiltord 9mo ago[flagged]
- wtfwhateven 9mo agoNope. That choice wasn't for aesthetic reasons.
- denkmoon 9mo agoWhile you'll get no argument from me about the Biden government being fascist adjacent, no. The font was chosen by that government for accessibility reasons. The font has now been changed for purely aesthetic reasons, attaching the politics of anti-DEIA to a particular aesthetic (serifed fonts). As for the politics of that government, a history lesson; In 1930s Germany, Liberals did nothing to abort the rise of NSDAP, seeing them as economic allies if not political allies. They sold out their country and turned a blind eye to genuine evil for profit and the reduction of the political influence of their workforce.
- JSR_FDED 9mo agoSuch a dingbat move
- ivanjermakov 9mo agoTimes New Roman is extremely common and often the only accepted font for official documents and colloquial works in post-soviet countries: https://www.cnews.ru/news/top/2018-12-10_rossijskim_chinovnikam_zapretili_ispolzovat https://www.cnews.ru/news/top/2018-12-10_rossijskim_chinovni.... I have only bad memories of using it since I directly associate it with endless formatting fixes for my diploma and course works.
- actionfromafar 9mo agoAnd bad keming. Though, that’s technically not a fault of the font itself.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- giantrobot 9mo agoSubtle and clever. You got a laugh out of me.
- Fnoord 9mo agoI chuckle at the thought mr. Putin was unable to parse some important US document, complained, and mr. Trump's minion promptly fixed the issue!
- oldsklgdfth 9mo agoSlightly tangential, is there any chance this is motivated by profit or someone making money off this? Otherwise, seems kinda benign and random.
- rcpt 9mo agoIt's probably to ensure people keep talking about "woke" which tends to be good for the right.
- icecube123 9mo agoIts exactly this. Choosing a font that makes things easier for disabled people, and those with limited sight is far too “woke” for 2025.
- embedding-shape 9mo agoAttention is a limited resource. When people spend it on something, they cannot spend it on something else at the same time. If you want to get away with something unpopular, do lots of unpopular things so the really bad stuff gets mixed in with all the rest. From the outside, it all looks very benign and random.
- dgeiser13 9mo agoThe ole DEIA font.
- xrd 9mo agoI for one am grateful someone is finally standing up to these lunatic radical typographers and their diversity, equity and italics tyranny.
- snickerbockers 9mo agoWhy the fuck does anybody care? Also is there no way to view these documents in the font of you choice???? The OP successfully included excerpts from the order without changing to times new roman so CLEARLY this is not insurmountable for anybody who actually notices irrelevant details such as this.
- PaulHoule 9mo agoFunny but my impression is that these days kerning is usually pretty bad with Serifed fonts in, at the very least, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Powerpoint, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator. It is not so bad if you are using it for paragraphs but I can't stand the way serifed fonts come out if I am setting display text for a poster unless I manually take over and adjust the kerning. After I had this problem I was wondering if I was the only one or what other people did so I looked at posters people had put up around campus and had a really hard time finding posters where people were using serifed fonts in large sizes and my guess is people either start out with sans or they tried something with serifs but changed their mind because it looked wrong.
- BLKNSLVR 9mo agoThe princess and the pea.
- thesagan 9mo agoOnce again Garamond is passed over. I truly live in dark times.
- rorylawless 9mo agoThis is approaching Saparmurat Niyazov levels of weirdness.
- 0xbadcafebee 9mo ago> calling his predecessor Antony Blinken's decision to adopt Calibri a "wasteful" diversity move, > 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 Man, helping disabled people is so woke. Who was the woke politician who made the government support disabled americans?
- morshu9001 9mo agoWasn't there was a previous "coup" that changed it from TNR to Calibri? TNR is nicer though.
- stego-tech 9mo agoIt really is just a bunch of petulant (predominantly, but not exclusively) old fucks throwing tantrums at any form of progress or change whatsoever, huh.
- thayne 9mo ago> calling his predecessor Antony Blinken's decision to adopt Calibri a "wasteful" diversity move And changing it back to Times New Roman isn't wasteful?
- donw 9mo ago[flagged]
- ChadNauseam 9mo agoNo one said it can't be changed back. No one called anyone weird or Hitler. They just said that "it was wasteful to change it from X to Y, so I'm changing it from Y back to X" isn't a logical argument.
- Jordan-117 9mo agoI'd say changing something for vague aesthetic reasons is far more wasteful than doing so to make things more accessible. Compare the cost of installing a curb cut vs. filling it back in because you think a straight curb looks "stronger."
- fsckboy 9mo agoserif vs sans serif is not "a vague aesthetic reason", it's the most fundamental typeface choice you can make, moreso than monospace (which is an artifact of some 19th century technology) Rubio is an attorney, and there are many stylistic conventions in the legal and judicial space, why ruffle those feathers by flouting them? if you are given a style guide for your PhD thesis, do you follow it or do you futz endlessly with the fonts to show them what an independent thinker you are?
- diputsmonro 9mo agoIt seems like Rubio has chosen to futz endlessly with fonts rather than follow the established style guide.
- rat87 9mo agoThere's Clickbait and then this awful headline designed to give people heart attacks. Who care about fonts? Boring. Why not jazz it up by mentioning coups during an administration that previously tried to pull of a coup attempt. Any administration officials names and coup should not be in the same sentence unless they attempt another one(or unless it's talking about the previous one).
- simondotau 9mo agoAs far as paper copies of laws and proclamations are concerned, the government can print them out in Wingdings for all I care. 99.999% of people will never see the physical paper. What matters are the digital files which, along with PDF, should be available to view in any font I want, whether Times New Roman or Comis Sans or braille.
- 1970-01-01 9mo agoThey should be digitally signed PDFs. It's nearly 2026 and trivial to do.
- simondotau 9mo agoEverything produced by congress should be stored in a git repository hosted in the Capitol.
- shadowtree 9mo agoGood - Calibri is not open, badly supported on Linux et al. HN should rejoice in the US gov using a font that is open and truly cross platform.
- _vqpz 9mo agoTimes New Roman is proprietary as well
- dsevil 9mo agoI think there's clones of it that aren't.
- Arodex 9mo agoYeah, we got it, you hate accessibility and dyslexic people.
- chrismorgan 9mo agoTimes New Roman, Arial, Courier New, Calibri, Cambria… all of these fonts are proprietary. But there are open-source metrically-compatible alternatives to all of them, commonly included in Linux distributions and/or office suites like LibreOffice. Probably the most popular set is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croscore_fonts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croscore_fonts, with Tinos, Arimo, Cousine, and in the extended set Carlito and Caladea. The former most popular set is probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts, with Liberation {Serif, Sans, Mono}. But a given system is definitely less likely to have a Calibri alternative than a Times New Roman alternative.
- Sunspark 9mo agoThe Croscore fonts ARE the Liberation fonts, just renamed. I keep both for naming compatibility and also because the 1.0 Liberation versions had truetype hinting (2.0 and up did not).
- jeroenhd 9mo agoCalibri works just fine on my machine. Just download the font using one of the many font packages available in your distro (i.e. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ttf-ms-win11 https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ttf-ms-win11) I don't think it's included by default but the font itself will just work once you install it. As for open fonts (can fonts even be truly closed in the first place?), Times New Roman is just as closed and proprietary as Calibri is.
- SpaceManNabs 9mo agoThis is silly as Montserrat is the only true choice.
- khazhoux 9mo ago> "This formatting standard aligns with the President’s One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations directive, underscoring the Department’s responsibility to present a unified, professional voice in all communications," it added. This administration truly sets a high standard for professional communication... > S.V. Dáte, HuffPost’s senior White House correspondent, asked the White House earlier this month who suggested Budapest, Hungary, as the location for an upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded: “Your mom did.” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung then followed up: “Your mom.” https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/steven-cheung-white-house-your-mom-message-b2855678.html https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-polit...
- UncleOxidant 9mo agoThere's a new serif in town.
- alexandre_m 9mo agoUnderrated comment.
- clickety_clack 9mo agoThe only non-partisan choice is comic sans.
- gjvc 9mo agoRoboto Condensed's description reads like something written by wine journalist: Roboto has a dual nature. It has a mechanical skeleton and the forms are largely geometric. At the same time, the font features friendly and open curves. While some grotesks distort their letterforms to force a rigid rhythm, Roboto doesn’t compromise, allowing letters to be settled into their natural width. This makes for a more natural reading rhythm more commonly found in humanist and serif types. A Sancerre with a long, sweet finish.
- dsevil 9mo agoI've seen some comments about how Times New Roman was replaced with something else to improve readability by many. There's an irony: the _Times_ (of London) commissioned it in 1932 to improve the readability of its newspaper, which previously used a Didone/Modern style typeface. I like Times New Roman and I find Calibri, a rounded-corner sans serif, to be an absolute abomination of milquetoast typography.
- jimnotgym 9mo agoI found that Calibri looks better than TNR on a low dpi screen. The serifs just make the letters look jagged.
- alphabetag675 9mo agoTimes New Roman was designed for a time when printing quality was not that good. With 1080p screen nowadays, that barrier is removed, so optimization of readability has different constraints.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- dghf 9mo agoAs others have said, Times New Roman was specifically designed for newspapers: * condensed glyph widths, for ease of setting in narrow columns * high x-heights and short ascenders and descenders, so lines can be set tighter and more text thus fitted on the page * robust forms and serifs to allow for the tendency of newsprint to absorb and spread ink These features don't necessarily translate to improved readability in other contexts.
- rtkwe 9mo agoIt may look better but it's harder to read basically across the board for anyone with difficulty distinguishing letters. Sans serif fonts are easier for people with dyslexia without going all the way to a dyslexia specific font. They're also generally far better for people with all sorts of poor vision. It really comes down to the fact that it's better to be functional, forms don't need to /look/ good they need to work well. For aesthetic things we can still use the pretty fonts.
- b00ty4breakfast 9mo agoyes, so wasteful to select a different font in 2025. Real cost-saving measure switching from the evil woke-font calibri to the strong masculine Times New Roman. Thank God Marco Rubio was on the case to set the universe back into alignment with this big-balled move. Terry Gilliam at his most deranged couldn't dream up this nonsense.
- joshuaheard 9mo agoMost federal courts require documents filed there to be in Times New Roman font.
- BuyMyBitcoins 9mo agoMoreover, due to executive order the typeface is now called “Times New American”.
- herewulf 9mo agoBVT NOT TO BE CONFVSED UUITH TIMES OLD ROMAN.
- bvan 9mo agoSeriously, with all the shit going on in the world, these guys spend time thinking about the wokeness of computer fonts?! What a clown show. Strike-through this administration.
- iambateman 9mo agoYou know what they always say…never waste a good crisis. This is our opportunity to tell our friends that neither Times New Roman nor Calibri are very good fonts. If they’re using Word—and they definitely are—Aptos is a better choice than either. If they want to look fancy and have a serif in their life, maybe they could try a little Cambria. But if they have a twinkle in their eye and seem like they want to learn, take a moment to introduce them to the wide and glorious world of Roboto. Tell them about the wonders of medium and light and semi-bold and extra-bold and wide and display and condensed and custom ligatures. Give them a taste of what real office typography could’ve been if Microsoft didn’t absolutely destroy it in the 90’s. Open their mind. Show them the truth. This is your time.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- gjvc 9mo agoit's a joy https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto and especially https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Condensed https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Condensed
- RobLach 9mo agoThe ole' turning around a failing effort with a rebrand.
- mjmas 9mo agoLooking through a selection of papers on serif vs non-serif fonts the conclusions seem to be that there is little difference when printed, but when viewing on-screen sans-serif is preferred.
- Svoka 9mo agoI could consider anti-DEI sentiment that 'people jumping the lane' as morally acceptable (valid by itself but based on wrong assumptions), but this, this is just evil. Like why would you change font because it is harder to read for someone?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- IceHegel 9mo agoI'm dyslexic and I much prefer to read Times New Roman to Calibri. I think it's a good move.
- dramm 9mo agoComic Sans might have been a more appropriate choice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- jdub 9mo agoThere are very few ways in which US governance and/or regulation leads the developed world, but a huge (and surprising) one is the 1990 (!) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It is astonishingly, transformationally inclusive, and makes life better for every American (because everyone needs accessibility to different degrees, at different times). Switching from Calibri back to Times New Roman "because DEI" 100% tracks with this administration's spiteful Project 2025 vandalism.
- praptak 9mo agoCalibri was supposedly easier to read by people with disabilities. While this itself is debatable, that's not the reasoning behind the font switch. The mere attempt at making life easier for disadvantaged people is labeled DEI and as such cannot be tolerated by this administration.
- beowulfey 9mo agoI would have thought the change to Calibri was simply because office uses it as the default font now
- behnamoh 9mo agoIt was the default, now it's Aptos.
- unsupp0rted 9mo agoMore charitably, the signaling could be: “keep the government as small as possible, but no smaller than that”, i.e. use things that basically mostly work and quit expending resources addressing every edge case, particularly when it’s performative (slight font variations) rather than obvious (a ramp to get into a public building)
- oblio 9mo agoMicrosoft Office (and Windows) changed the default font more than a decade ago. Changing it back is the exact definition of performative work. Edit: 19 years ago. Almost 2 decades ago!
- throwawaypath 9mo ago>Microsoft Office (and Windows) changed the default font more than a decade ago. You're behind. They've since changed it again. Calibri is no longer the default for Microsoft Office, it's now Aptos. That change was a few years ago.
- wltr 9mo agoThere was an event (or events?) in the past, when some past documents were forged, but with the default (in MS Word, I suppose) Calibre font, which was released years later. I wonder if this has something to do with it. I love if someone remembers that event better and can provide a link. My memory serves it was about a decade or so ago.
- ropable 9mo agoIt's beyond satire that US conservatives are now somehow upset about certain fonts being woke.
- retrocog 9mo agoFell asleep in America and woke up in Lilliput
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- ycombigrator 9mo agoWhat do you call a Banana Republic that has lots of different kinds of bananas?
- iguana_shine 9mo agoThis headline is obnoxious
- userbinator 9mo agoI never liked Calibri when it was pushed aggressively by MS and showed up everywhere - I prefer Arial or Helvetica for sans-serif, and think TNR is a good default for serif, with Computer Modern a close second.
- dghf 9mo agoComputer Modern is nice on paper but a bit spindly on screen, IMO: Knuth's other serif font, Concrete Roman, works better for that.
- bb88 9mo agoTIL: if you google Times New Roman, you get Google search results in Times New Roman. You also get Calibri if you search for it, but not Zapf Dingbats.
- seydor 9mo agoA Glorious Font for the Times New Roman Caesar
- goku12 9mo agoSo if this one is a dictator, does that mean the next one is an emperor?
- zkmon 9mo agoThe first-world problems!