3d ago

Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI

techcrunch.com Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI | TechCrunch

Calibri, which could make documents easier to read for the vision impaired, was apparently installed in 2023 by the department’s then-DEI office. Rubio’s memo has designated Times New Roman as his tenure’s official font, stating it will “restore decorum and professionalism” to documents.

A Boring Dystopia @lemmy.world

techcrunch.com /2025/12/10/marco-rubio-bans-calibri-font-at-state-department-for-being-too-dei/

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Technology @lemmy.world

Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI

techcrunch.com /2025/12/10/marco-rubio-bans-calibri-font-at-state-department-for-being-too-dei/

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Not The Onion @lemmy.world

Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI

techcrunch.com /2025/12/10/marco-rubio-bans-calibri-font-at-state-department-for-being-too-dei/

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66 comments

A font is woke?
- They don't even dislike the font itself. They dislike that it was designed with accessibility in mind. Because they are evil assholes.
- being able to read is woke, so they're going back
- They changed the style guide during the Biden administration IIRC. TNR to MS Office default Calibri.
  The rule is "everything they did is woke" so by their reckoning, yup. Woke as fuck. It's like:
  #1 MLK Jr. Day Exists #2 Juneteenth nee holiday #3 Calibri font
  
  My local news site wrote that they changed back to times new roman because the calibri font was developed for people who had difficulties to read (like dyslexia I assume), thus DEI and the current administration has to change it back.
  
  i think their reasoning for the change also was that it’s easier to read for certain people with disabilities
  … so that’s where they get the DEI part from
  … but… wasteful? what the actual fuck
- No, Rubio and those like him are just morons.
- I'd like to think comic sans is due for some more hate - does that count?

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/736/

Times New Roman was designed for the print era, and Calibri for onscreen viewing. Onscreen viewing is a lot more common today. Based on that technical characteristic, I'd be kind of inclined to favor Calibri or at least some screen-oriented font.
That being said, screens are also higher-resolution than they were in the past, so the rationale might be less-significant than it once was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibri
Calibri (/kəˈliːbri/) is a digital sans-serif typeface family in the humanist or modern style. It was designed by Lucas de Groot in 2002–2004 and released to the general public in 2006, with Windows Vista.[3] In Microsoft Office 2007, it replaced Times New Roman as the default font in Word and replaced Arial as the default font in PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. In Windows 7, it replaced Arial as the default font in WordPad. De Groot described its subtly rounded design as having "a warm and soft character".[3] In January 2024, the font was replaced by Microsoft's new bespoke font, Aptos, as the new default Microsoft Office font, after 17 years.[4][5]
I suspect that the Office shift is probably a large factor in moving to Calibri.
That being said, there are many Times New Roman implementations, but it sounds like Calibri is owned by Microsoft, so I'd be kind of inclined to favor something open.
- I personally think that serif fonts are easier to read, especially with differentiating between l and I.
  
  I use Google's Noto Sans as my default browser sans-serif font. It does a better job having a different capital-I and lower-case-l than does Calibri:
  http://www.identifont.com/differences?first=Noto+Sans&second=Calibri
- In fairness some buggers print their emails
  
  I once wrote code for an elderly researcher who would only review code as a hard copy. I'd bring him stacks of paper and he'd get going with his pen and highlighter. And I'll grant that the resolution is normally higher on paper than on most displays. I'm viewing this on a laptop screen that's about 200 ppi. A laser printer is probably printing at a minimum of 300 dpi, maybe 600 or 1200 dpi.
  I still think that the few people reading things in print are the exception that proves the rule, though.

Serifs are MANLY, sans serifs are GAY and WOKE and SOCIALIST
- I need muh fonts to have appendages or I feel weak.

Ok so what I'm gathering today is that the news is stupid as fuck today and I should occupy my time by going outside instead. Fuck this noise.

Everything other than PAPYRUS is too modern and therefore woke!
- Tribal, yet futuristic. PAPYRUS!
  I KNOW WHAT YOU DID!!!
- Sadly, Papyrus could not be reached for comment as it got detained at the border and is now somewhere in Ghana
- He wanted to please taco by insisting on Tannenberg, but nobody could read it.

Brave of Rubio to go against the President's push for Comic Sans.

This is what conservatives are upset about.
- This is just the next rage-bait to distract or attempt to distract from the very real crimes being openly happening from the executive. This whole regime is a farce at best, fascist at worst. Half are just trying to undo things someone they dislike enacted and the other half are trying to grift the country. A small subset is trying to do both.

I’m no graphic designer, but ewww.
Why not just use comic sans, wingdings, or papyrus while you’re at it? No fucking taste or decorum at all with these fascist pigs.
Is anyone willing to take bets on whether Arabic numerals will be the next to go?
- They'll switch to Roman numerals just to say Musk did a Roman salute.
- Oh using Roman numerals in budget bills would honestly be wild and cool. I'd just love to see if anybody could read those numbers 🫠

Is he just dyslexic and it's easier to read times new roman? Because that to me seems more logical, but god forbid you admit you have a disability to the MAGA white house
- It’s the other way around. Serif fonts like Times New Roman are harder for dyslexics to read, and the previous admin switched to Calibri for accessibility because it is sans serif.
  
  Oh my God that's so unnecessarily malicious

The real reason may be that they want to make it harder for their forged documents to be discovered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibri#In_crime_and_politics
- It's not. It's that TNR was the standard for some swirling "back then" time frame and switching to the MS Office default font happened under Biden. It's literally because they looked at a list of changes under Biden, labeled them all "woke" and only have so many staff hours a day to "unwoke" everything.
- This makes the most sense to me.
  
  That’s a sensible reason but these people appear to be just that stupid and petty.
- Well that was a fascinating and hilarious read. Thanks for posting that!
  That said, 2006 was a long time ago now, I think that kind of issue with the calibri font in particular is going to become less and less relevant.
- Would be pretty fun to see the reverse being how it's discovered. This 2023 doc that's written on the wrong font

Are they just trying to stay relevant?
Everybody is so busy talking about the shit they've caused to spin out of control, and nobody is really talking about them individually? So now they just sit in their little isolated military housing they stole from soldiers trying to come up with innovative ways to own the libs?

I’ve noticed that a lot of the material produced by the Trump admin uses Garamond Condensed which is the same font Apple used on its machines and corporate documentation in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
- I think it was just the 1980s and 1990s. #SaveTheApostrophes for when they're required.
  
  And with font discussions comes this guy...

Time to use wingdings

Big Font is all over this. I can smell them.

That's so cargo cult. Use things from the past so the imagined glorious past will come back.

Perfect article for this community. Begins with:
In an action that reads like a story from The Onion

Next they're going to ban letters and only communicate with emojis. That way it's easier to change the interpretation depending on what's in their favor.
- After training AI for hours on our leadership... Were confused as to why everything autocorrects to "eggplant" and "peach" when messaging children. A true mystery.

I hope this guy becomes visually impaired. Are there thugs one can hire out there that can make it happen? Can we crowd source the funds for such a project?

Cool. Now can you actually DO your job??

Why not just change it to wingdings then? If the point is to make things harder to read serif fonts are still kinda legible.

probably cause it was a biden thing. cali to the standard windows font anyway

Instructions unclear, font reverted even further back to Arial, because fuck you Rubio.

Truly using his political power to help Americans everywhere. What a hero.

I liked when Captain Hook stabbed him. Let's see him try to win the Lost Boys over from Peter Pan now!
What a paramecium.

“Americans allow Marco Rubio to ban Calibri font for being too DEI”
- Yes he personally sent me an email to ask about it. And I was like HELL YEAH PAL, BAN THAT GAY WOKE SHIT!

As America loses it clout and it's international influence, the state department focuses on THIS? And I much prefer NTR of calibri, but good God, is this the only thing Rubio is capable of?

“Not only am I tiny, so is my dick!”

66 comments