Battle of the typefaces: Times New Roman vs. Calibri
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At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke
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.
By Michael Crowley and Hamed Aleaziz (Dec. 9, 2025)
While 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.
François Lang, who called my attention to this contretemps, confessed:
"Just for the record, I prefer Times New Roman, even if I have to agree with Marco Rubio". 😁
Selected readings
- "A surfeit of katakana words: how do you say 'woke' in Japanese?"
- "A new kind of lost in translation" (12/3/25)
Guy D Plunkett III said,
December 10, 2025 @ 3:36 pm
They really should just go right to Comic Sans for all the .gov sites that haven't been taken down.
Andreas Johansson said,
December 10, 2025 @ 3:38 pm
How is changing again going to waste less money?
AntC said,
December 10, 2025 @ 3:50 pm
(I knew this would turn up on LLog.)
"wasteful"? If the Departments had been required to destroy all New Roman printed material and re-issue as Calibri, I suppose it might have been; but it seems the Calibri applied only for new materials.
I suggest the serifs need more ink to print, so they're wasteful.
On screen, I find those serifs quite a bit harder to read. I see even Fox News' website is resolutely sans.
ardj said,
December 10, 2025 @ 4:16 pm
@AntC
Yes, the reason for the change under Biden, as told to me, was that many people with various visual handicaps – and many without – found the sans serif more legible – and it fitted with Microsoft's usage, which many were accustomed to.
Sergey said,
December 10, 2025 @ 7:49 pm
I personally find the serif typefaces much easier to read than sans-serif. I don't know why, but differentiating the shapes of serif letters is easier. Well, I also find the fixed-width fonts often easier to read, so maybe the reason of serif preference for me is that sans-serif ends up with narrower letters, while serifs make the letters wider.
Anselm said,
December 10, 2025 @ 9:06 pm
As the name suggests, Times New Roman was designed for typesetting newspaper content. It runs very narrow so more text fits on a line, which is great for newspapers that usually print articles in multiple columns per page. OTOH, it really sucks if you have block text on A4 (or letter/legal) paper with fairly narrow margins so as to use most of the paper, because then your lines will contain too many characters and the document will be harder to read.
Pro-tip: Don't use Times New Roman unless you're producing newspaper-like content in narrow columns. There are very nice roman-style fonts (with serifs) which are much more readable for standard documents. Your computer has a bunch of them pre-installed.
AntC said,
December 11, 2025 @ 12:49 am
According to Stephen Colbert, the announcement was made in Wingdings.
Chas Belov said,
December 11, 2025 @ 1:48 am
I'm okay with Times New Roman in print, but for on a screen sans serif all the way. However, I hate Calibri, preferring Verdana, Noto Sans, Helvetica or Graphein. Arial will do in a pinch, although some characters look alike.
Yuval said,
December 11, 2025 @ 2:40 am
Best take I've seen on this is "There's a new serif in town".
David Morris said,
December 11, 2025 @ 6:01 am
My workplace uses Arial as the standard font, and I will happily not look at Arial outside of work hours.
Olaf Zimmermann said,
December 11, 2025 @ 7:11 am
In French, we have a saying for this: "C'est hallucinant!"
Jany Lin said,
December 11, 2025 @ 7:25 am
Honestly, the real battle between Times New Roman and Calibri comes down to personality vs. practicality. Times New Roman is the seasoned classic—formal, sharp, and a little dramatic, like it walked straight out of a 1950s newsroom. Calibri, on the other hand, is the clean, modern team player that doesn’t demand attention but still gets the job done. Whether you love the timeless elegance of serif or the smooth readability of sans serif, the winner really depends on your vibe: tradition or simplicity?
J.W. Brewer said,
December 11, 2025 @ 8:01 am
I was curious about the usage of other branches of the federal government, and it turns out that some of them use (in appropriate contexts) a mix of with-serif and sans-serif fonts, which I think most graphic designers will tell you there's nothing inherently wrong with.
Here's an example of the current format of "WANTED" posters put out by the FBI using such a mix: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/giovanni-vicente-mosquera-serrano/@@download.pdf
And others vary by genre: for example the website of the Supreme Court of the U.S. looks pretty consistently sans-serif until you click through to pdf's of the Court's actual decisions, which are in Century Schoolbook.
Philip Taylor said,
December 11, 2025 @ 8:29 am
How is one meant to parse "ten" in that poster, JWB. In normal usage one would write "Ten most wanted fugitives" (plural) and feature ten mug shots, or "Tenth most wanted fugitive" (singular) and feature one mug shot, but "ten most wanted fugitive" just leaves me struggling …
Jonathan Smith said,
December 11, 2025 @ 8:37 am
@Philip Taylor apparently this is an NP "FBI ten-most-wanted fugitive Giovanni Someone", which is weird in its own way…
David Marjanović said,
December 11, 2025 @ 10:23 am
Hm. Does changing from Microsoft's new default font to Microsoft's old default font really suggest "decorum", let alone "professionalism"…?
Also: "Joe Biden shot the serif".
Mark Liberman said,
December 11, 2025 @ 10:52 am
I can't believe that no one has referenced Elle Cordova's "Fonts hanging out"…
Oracles said,
December 11, 2025 @ 12:41 pm
My favorite part was this:
"Mr. Blinken also changed the standard font size, from 14-point to 15-point, requiring extra keystrokes that some diplomats found annoying."
I had not realized until now that typing bigger characters required me to press more keys. Or maybe press them harder? Instructions unclear.
Stephen Goranson said,
December 11, 2025 @ 5:57 pm
It'd be fun if Elle Cordova and Julesy collaborated on…well, anything!
(Were anyone to introduce them.)
ajay said,
December 12, 2025 @ 4:57 am
Honestly, the real battle between Times New Roman and Calibri comes down to personality vs. practicality. Times New Roman is the seasoned classic—formal, sharp, and a little dramatic, like it walked straight out of a 1950s newsroom. Calibri, on the other hand, is the clean, modern team player that doesn’t demand attention but still gets the job done. Whether you love the timeless elegance of serif or the smooth readability of sans serif, the winner really depends on your vibe: tradition or simplicity?
I would be willing to bet a small sum of money that this comment was written by an LLM.
ajay said,
December 12, 2025 @ 4:59 am
Here's an example of the current format of "WANTED" posters put out by the FBI using such a mix
Surely any fan of Western movies would demand that all WANTED posters use as many different fonts as possible?
Michael Vnuk said,
December 12, 2025 @ 5:47 am
Commenter ajay thought that Jany Lin's comment was written by an LLM. I wouldn't have said that, mainly because the few times I have read about fonts in the past decades, the discussion has seemed to use very subjective terms, as in Jany Lin's comment. I have found such discussion hard to connect with, and I am none the wiser as to why one particular font is chosen over others. (Of course, if an LLM was trained on similar human-written materials from the past, then perhaps it could replicate them now.)
Philip Taylor said,
December 12, 2025 @ 6:01 am
Anselm’s "Times New Roman was designed for typesetting newspaper content" comment seems by far the best informed to me.
J.W. Brewer said,
December 12, 2025 @ 8:59 am
@Philip Taylor: It's like being a pop-music combo and having your record in the Top Ten.
Philip Taylor said,
December 12, 2025 @ 9:42 am
OK, today's brain-fog must be the worst I have ever experienced — could you possibly explain what you meant by your last comment, JWB (the one referring to pop groups, I mean, just in case you post another before this comment appears ) ?
J.W. Brewer said,
December 12, 2025 @ 10:57 am
@PT: The FBI has long maintained a list, with shifting membership over time, of its https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Ten_Most_Wanted_Fugitives. For a fugitive to appear on that list might be thought a professional honor and distinction comparable to a pop group having a Top Ten hit.
Philip Taylor said,
December 12, 2025 @ 6:41 pm
Ah, Wunderbar — that interpretation totally passed me by. Thank you !
ajay said,
December 16, 2025 @ 5:25 am
Michael Vnuk, however, I am willing to state with moderate certainty, is a human doing an LLM impression.
ajay said,
December 16, 2025 @ 5:28 am
If there is an easily readable font that somehow also makes it easy to distinguish between the numeral 1, l as in langoustine, and I as in Indonesia, that would be my favourite.
Philip Taylor said,
December 16, 2025 @ 8:08 am
The font in which my browser (Firefox, 64-bit, Windows 11) renders comments on this forum (Verdana) makes it very easy to distinguish between the numeral 1, l as in langoustine, and I as in Indonesia; what is interesting, however, is that the font used in the comment submission box (Lucida Sans Unicode) is markedly inferior in that respect. Fonts ascertained by using Firefox's "Inspect" feature after highlighting the glyph of interest.
ajay said,
December 16, 2025 @ 10:12 am
Yes, I noticed that immediately after submitting my comment!!