:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/Marco-Rubio-120925-a3a4db74eb8140559bec427a7738bf63.jpg?ssl=1 "Marco Rubio Removes State Department’s Official Typeface, Says It ‘Lacks Decorum’")
NEED TO KNOW
- Former Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken decided during President Joe Biden’s administration that the State Department would use Calibri as the official communications font
- However, the current Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, reportedly said on Tuesday, Dec. 9, that the department would return to its previous use of Times New Roman
- Rubio said the decision to return to Times New Roman is “to restore decorum and professionalism”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reversed one of his predecessor’s orders: the State Department’s official communications font.
Rubio issued a memo on Tuesday, Dec. 9, saying that the department would not be using the sans-serif font Calibri. Instead, it would be returning to Times New Roman “as its standard typeface,” according to The New York Times.
The reversal is “to restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful D.E.I.A. [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility] program,” Rubio’s memo read, per the outlet.
“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 memo read, according to Reuters.
Former President Joe Biden‘s Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, decided to use Calibri in 2023 to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, per the NYT. It is a sans-serif font, and those have been recognized as easier to read, according to a 2022 National Institutes of Health study.
Rubio stated in the Dec. 9 memo that the previous switch to Calibri has “achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence.” He said that serif fonts are used by the White House, Supreme Court and other state and federal government entities, and are “generally perceived to connote tradition, formality and ceremony,” according to NYT.
In addition to changing the font type, Rubio has reverted the typeface to 14-point, instead of Blinken’s 15-point requirement.
Times New Roman was the department’s official typeface for nearly two decades. The department switched from Courier New to Times New Roman in 2004.
Times New Roman was designed by Victor Lardent and typographic adviser Stanley Morison in 1932 for the Times of London newspaper, according to Adobe. Calibri was designed by type designer Lucas de Groot in 2004, The New Yorker reported.
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PEOPLE reached out to the State Department for comment.
