US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the State Department to revert to using Times New Roman for documents instead of Calibri, reversing changes made by the Biden administration to make documents more accessible.
Antony Blinken, Rubio's predecessor, changed the font requirements on Calibri to make the text more legible for people with disabilities, but Rubio partially reversed that decision to make the text “more formal and professional.”
The new changes come into force on December 10 and apply to both external and internal documents.
Lukas de Groot, the Dutch designer behind Calibri, told BBC Newshour the change was both “sad and funny”.
“Calibri was designed to make it easier to read on modern computer screens – it was chosen to replace TNR, the font Rubio wants to return to now,” Mr de Groot said.
A State Department spokesman told the BBC the change to Times New Roman was in line with President Donald Trump's mission to “present a single, professional voice in all communications.”
“Aligning State Department practices to this standard ensures that our communications reflect the same dignity, consistency and formality expected of official government correspondence,” the spokesperson said.
Times New Roman is a serif font, meaning it has small lines running from the ends of the letters. Courts, legislatures, and other institutions typically use a more formal font. Calibri is a sans-serif font without these lines and is considered easier to read on screens, especially for people with vision or reading impairments.
In his order on Tuesday requiring diplomats to return to Times New Roman, Rubio called Blinken's decision to use Calibri a “wasteful” diversity initiative, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
The Trump administration has made several changes to government over the past 11 months in an effort to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Most recently, the Trump administration announced it would eliminate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and Juneteenth, two federal holidays honoring black history, as free admission days to national parks. Instead, visitors will be given free admission on President Donald Trump's birthday, which coincides with Flag Day.
