WASHINGTON — He’s font and center in the State Department.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed all diplomats to revert to using the Times New Roman typeface in official communications and ripped into his predecessor for shifting to Calibri.
Two years ago, Rubio’s predecessor, Antony Blinken, switched to Calibri, a softer, simpler-shaped, and wider font than Times New Roman, in part to assist individuals with certain visual disabilities such as low vision and dyslexia.
“Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence,” Rubio wrote in an “action request,” obtained by Reuters and the New York Times.
Times New Roman has long been a classic letterhead in books, featuring narrower and more formally shaped letters relative to Calibri.
The State Department used Times New Roman as its official font starting in 2004, when it shifted away from Courier New, a typeface frequently used in screenplays with its monospaced letters.
Rubio reportedly dinged the Blinken-era switch to Calibri as “wasteful” and woke in his Dec. 9 cable to personnel.
“To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility] program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface,” Rubio reportedly wrote.
“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.”
At the time of the Blinken-era switch to Calibri, the State Department had pointed to studies suggesting the wider typeface was more readable for people with visual disabilities — a conclusion that has split experts.
During President Trump’s second term, his team has sought to scrap Biden-era diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies within the government and encourage the private sector to do the same.
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