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Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

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Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Every time I have to renew my Australian passport I have to buy a ream of A4 paper. Every time I forget where last time's ream was stored. I suspect someday I'll find thousands of sheets somewhere lost in my basement.

The trick is, next time you need it, make note of where you first look for it, and when your acquire more, put the newly acquired paper on the first spot you looked for the old stuff.

Ah, but now I need to figure out where to put the "remember to leave a note" note so I find it in 2026.

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#112
post #91

A shame they didn’t opt for Public Sans, which was designed by the US Web Design System team. Though I see it only supports Latin characters at the moment, which might make it unsuitable for use at State. https://public-sans.digital.gov

Extended Latin, including Polish, Vietnamese, etc. Useful enough. Thanks for sharing :)

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#113
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that Anthony Blinken came up with the idea of using Calibri?

I mean, that's not implausible. This sounds like exactly what would happen if one person had a specific font preference and happened to be in charge.

Calibri is the default MS Office font

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#114
post #56
post #44

Allegedly during Colin Powell’ time at the State Department there was quite an ordeal to change paper sizes for communication between offices: https://www.govexec.com/magazine/2001/06/the-powell-leadersh... “correspondence between headquarters and overseas embassies, known as Diplomatic Notes, for years had to be accompanied by a legal-size (8 1/2-inch by 14-inch) cover sheet. That wasn't really a big deal when the n…

8.5”x11” is a standard size for the US and Canada, but not for the rest of the world. Which leads to the eternal problems for any NGOs or contractors working for the US government overseas who have to source Letter size for US gov partners and A4 for local partners!

Does it really matter? Letter size is close enough to A4 that I doubt anyone but paper nerds would notice

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is, next time you need it, make note of where you first look for it, and when your acquire more, put the newly acquired paper on the first spot you looked for the old stuff.

Ah, but now I need to figure out where to put the "remember to leave a note" note so I find it in 2026.

Leave it as a reply to this comment.

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#116

How are they planning to deal with the I-l issue? Hope that it never comes up?

This is part of why some important government reports still use all caps. It's also a leftover from the telegraph era. INTELLIGENCE REPORT FOR THE PRESIDENT STATE DEPARTMENT SECRET/NOFORN JANUARY 18 2023 CONTENTS: 1. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS WITHIN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 2. PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM 3. TURKEY AND NATO

Exactly, bIg > lIl

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#117

As one of the very few moon dwellers who finds Calibri fucking blinding to read, I hate this. Times New Roman all day every day, or any of Arial/Tahoma/Verdana for sans serif.

I don't understand the love for Times New Roman honestly. Any type of antiqua is better if you ask me.

In Times New Roman's name, Roman is a reference to the regular or roman style (sometimes also called Antiqua)

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#118
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logistics probably. With out a doubt you know this font is deployed on most systems around the world. It’s maintained by one of the largest companies in the world. And its provenance can be assured.

Now I want to make a custom Times New Roman font with unpredictable ligatures and 0-width vector data so poorly monitored systems create false data when printed in hardcopy.

https://www.1001fonts.com/toms-new-roman-font.html

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#119
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Every time I have to renew my Australian passport I have to buy a ream of A4 paper. Every time I forget where last time's ream was stored. I suspect someday I'll find thousands of sheets somewhere lost in my basement.

Deep within your subconscious memories is a series of you unloading A4 from your printer, thinking about where to best store it, finding 20 reams already there, stacking this one on top, and then promptly forgetting the location.

"I don't put things where I think they should go, I put them where I am likely to look for them" - Adam Savage

Re: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And still not even A4

A/B/C paper series formats are based on metrics system and therefore, morally evil and unfit for the US consumption.

* Imperial units are defined in terms of metric units.

* The cost of changing over is astronomical

* Domains where the metric system is actually better use the metric system

* Domains where it does not don't need it.

* You have a supercomputer on your wrist. Dividing by a number other than 10 is not such a challenge anymore.

* A4 paper is in no way superior to letter. It's just a choice.

Replacing American exceptionalism with European exceptionalism (usually because of someone's trip when they were in college) is not necessarily always an improvement.

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