US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the State Department to go back to using Times New Roman typeface as the standard for official papers, a spokesperson told CNN, in a reversal of the previous administration’s update to the sans-serif Calibri.
Starting on Wednesday, all papers should use Times New Roman in 14-point font to align with the president’s “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations directive,” the spokesperson said, adding that the typeface is “more formal and professional.”
The move undoes the Biden administration’s update to using Calibri in official department documents in 2023 amid a movement to make webpages and publications more accessible. Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the change on the recommendation of internal diversity and disability groups, CNN reported at the time.
Reuters previously reported on the reversal, citing a December 9 cable sent to US diplomatic posts that said the move was intended to “restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program.”
Calibri is a sans serif typeface, meaning it’s a cleaner font without any extra lines attached to the letters compared to Times New Roman. This can make it easier to read for people with dyslexia or vision problems, some experts say.
Continue reading the complete article on the original source
