Calibri is too woke for the State Department

The US State Department is turning back to an old typeface in its latest quest to tear up anything related to diversity or accessibility. In an internal document seen by Reuters and The New York Times, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Biden-era decision to switch to Calibri typeface in official department communications was a “wasteful” diversity move, and ordered employees to revert back to using Times New Roman font in official communications.

Times New Roman was phased out by the State Department in 2023 in favor of Calibri under former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an effort to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities. In his memo, titled “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” Rubio said that switching to Calibri “achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence,” and that serif typefaces like Times New Roman are “generally perceived to connote tradition, formality and ceremony.”

Calibri is a sans serif typeface that lacks the small decorative lines at the ends of letters, numbers, and characters, and is considered to be more readable on device screens and easier for screenwriting tech to distinguish. Calibri was also the default typeface used by Microsoft Office for 17 years, until it switched to its bespoke Aptos typeface in 2024, which is designed to make reading text on screens for extended periods of time more comfortable.

“To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface,” Rubio said in the internal memo. “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.”

The readability benefits of sans serif typefaces like Calibri won’t apply to every individual’s circumstances — Adobe notes that serif typefaces like Times New Roman also provide legibility improvements at smaller text sizes — but this change could reduce accessibility to “all communications” coming from the State Department. Doing so under the guise of restoring antiquated traditions around text feels petty. It’s a stark example of just how far the Trump administration is willing to take its war on diversity — not even the fonts are safe.