No more Calibri in Trump government documents because it’s a font woke up. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States, ordered to change the font used in official documents of the Department of State (DOS) because he considers Calibri informal, promotes diversity and inclusion and “collides” with official departmental letterhead; so they will start using Times New Roman again, which “will restore decorum and professionalism in the written work of the department,” Rubió said in an internal message, according to the newspaper. The New York Times.
Rubio’s decision is the latest example of Donald Trump’s administration eliminating any initiative it says promotes inclusion and diversity, known by its acronym DEI, at the federal level. Some diplomats have expressed dissatisfaction with Rubio’s changes to the structure and direction of DOS. As reported by times, 98% of government employees have felt demoralized and ignored since Trump took office in January of this year.
From Courier New to Calibri
During Joe Biden’s term, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered the change to be made in 2023, since Calibri does not use serifs – small ornaments or finishes at the ends of letter strokes – which is why it is considered softer and more accessible to people with vision problems or reading difficulties. For Rubio, this change has only led to the degradation of official State Department correspondence.
For 20 years, from 2003 until Blinken’s change, the United States government used Times New Roman as the official font for official documents. The serif font was created by Stanley Morison and designed by Victor Lardent in 1931 for the British newspaper The times: In October 1932, the newspaper published its first edition in Times New Roman and it became its official font until 1972.
Prior to 2003, the State Department used Courier New. THE The Courier font had been used on IBM typewriters since the 1950s, but because the company was unable to obtain the rights to the design, many other companies used it and it became the typical typewriter font. This font is neither modern, nor elegant, nor easily readable.
Dutch designer Lucas de Groot, director of type foundry — font designers — Frontfabric, a company that works with brands such as Adobe and Canva, created Calibri for the Windows Vista operating system in 2006 and it quickly became the default font for Microsoft Office.
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