State Department trades Calibri for Times New Roman : NPR

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pictured at a ceremony at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington last week, asked diplomats to bring back Times New Roman as the official font.

Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images

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Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images

The State Department reversed a Biden-era font change that aimed to make its documents more accessible to readers with disabilities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats around the world to switch from Calibri to Times New Roman 14-point font in all official documents, starting Wednesday, the State Department said in a statement to NPR. The difference between the two fonts comes down to a few finishing strokes.

“Whether internal memoranda, documents prepared for directors, or documents shared externally, consistent formatting builds credibility and supports a unified departmental identity,” the release said.

Times New Roman was the official font of the State Department for almost two decades, from 2004 to 2023.

According to the Associated Press, Rubio said in a cable sent to U.S. embassies and consulates that the 2023 change, implemented by then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, was part of misguided diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Calibri is a sans-serif font, which means it doesn’t have the decorative peaks and tails at the ends of the letters like serif fonts like Times New Roman do.

Times New Roman is a serif font, with decorative flourishes, while the Calibri sans-serif font may be easier to read.

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NPR

These little flourishes can make the lettering harder to read, says Kristen Shinohara, who directs the Center for Accessibility and Inclusion Research at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

“This impact may be more severe for people with learning or reading difficulties like dyslexia or for people who are visually impaired,” she told NPR. Morning edition.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires the use of sans-serif fonts on physical signage and display screens because of their relative readability. At the same time, serif fonts like Times New Roman remain the standard in printed newspapers, books, legal documents and much more.

“Times New Roman in particular, and serif fonts in general, are more formal and professional,” the State Department statement said. He did not respond to NPR’s questions about reduced accessibility.

Times New Roman was designed especially for the British newspaper The times in the 1920s and quickly became the preferred typeface for many other publications. It was also the default font for Microsoft programs like Word from the 1990s until it was replaced by Calibri, designed for screens, in 2007.

Microsoft replaced Calibri with a sans-serif font called Aptos in 2023. The company wrote in a blog post at the time that Aptos designer Steve Matteson wanted the font to have “the universal appeal of the late NPR anchor Carl Kasell and the artful tone of The late show host Stephen Colbert.”

Small print, bigger designs

Rubio’s memo describes Calibri’s 2023 change as “another unnecessary DEIA program” and says it has not led to a significant reduction in the department’s accessibility-based document remediation cases, according to copies obtained by Reuters and the Associated Press.

The Trump administration has made no secret of its disdain for its predecessor’s emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Trump has issued numerous executive orders dismantling DEI initiatives in federal agencies, the Foreign Service, federal contracts and more. His administration has put pressure on public universities and schools, threatening to deny federal funding to those with DEI programs, although a judge struck down some of those initiatives in August. And the growing backlash against DEI has also led many private companies to scale back their own such initiatives.

During his tenure at the State Department, Rubio has already abolished offices and initiatives intended to foster inclusion and diversity, both in Washington and abroad.

The State Department statement said the return to Times New Roman better aligns with Trump’s February “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations” directive, emphasizing his “responsibility to present a unified, professional voice in all communications.”

It also fits into the Trump administration’s broader fixation on aesthetics, from the redesign of its gilded Oval Office to its proposal for a classical-style arch in Washington, D.C. to mark the nation’s 250th birthday, to its August executive order requiring that new federal buildings prioritize classical and traditional architectural styles.

And long before the Trump administration began specifying the fonts of federal agencies, it was limiting the words they could use.

The Department of Health and Human Services has removed entire web pages dedicated to topics like LGBTQ health and HIV, while the Department of Energy has asked employees to avoid using terms like “climate change” and “sustainable.” Just this week, court documents were released showing the six-page list of words that federal Head Start programs cannot use, including “disability,” “race” and “women.”