Is Calibri actually more accessible? Every step of this story seems pointless and fake.
Anecdotal but the new default Office font Aptos seems much better than both TNR and Calibri.
Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
161–170 of 738 posts
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#162Calibri font has "I" and "l" the same, according to Wikipedia. A better font should avoid characters being too similar (such as "I" and "l" and "1"). Another issue is due to the font size and font metrics, how much space it will take up on the page, to be small enough to avoid wasting paper and ink but also not too small to read. So, there are multiple issues in choosing the fonts; however, Times New Roman and Calibr…
> Calibri font has "I" and "l" the same, according to Wikipedia. A better font should avoid characters being too similar (such as "I" and "l" and "1"). Only when used in a context where they can be confused. This is a situation where HN is going to give bad advice. Programmers care deeply about that stuff (i.e. "100l" is a long-valued integer literal in C and not the number 1001). Most people tend not to, and there i…
> Most people tend not to
Yeah because normal people never have to deal with alphanumeric strings...
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#163Even if you believe the previous administration switching fonts was virtue signaling, then by the same logic you have to also believe this is just virtue signalling.
I'm really out of the loop on this. What virtue is being signaled by who? I know people get real touchy about fonts, but I have a hard time understanding why this is even a news article.
Per the State Department in 2023:
https://x.com/John_Hudson/status/1615486871571935232
> fonts like Times New Roman have serifs ("wings" and "feet") or decorative, angular features that can introduce accessibility issues for individuals with disabilities who use Optical Character Recognition technology or screen readers. It can also cause visual recognition issues for individuals with learning disabilities.
> On January 4, 2023, in support of the Department's iCount Campaign on disability inclusion (reftels), Secretary Blinken directed the Department to use a more accessible font. Calibri has no wings and feet and is the default font in Microsoft products and was recommended as an accessibility best practice by the Secretary's Office of Diversity and Inclusion in collaboration with the Executive Secretariat and the Bureau of Global Talent Management's Office of Accessibility and Accommodations.
In 2023, the US State Department signalled how virtuous it was, by moving from the previously-default MS Office font to the then-currently-default MS Office font. The current MS Office default font is Aptos, place your bets on what the State Department is going to switch the font to in 3 years time.
As far as I know, font choice has no zero effect on screen readers, which ask compatible software what words are on screen and read them out. There is evidence that serifs cause visual recognition issues for some individuals, but there's also evidence they aid recognition for different individuals.
It probably helped everyone to choose 14pt Calibri over 12pt Times New Roman, as the font is more legible on LCD screens.
The virtue being signalled by the current administration is that everything their predecessors did was wrong and they're literally going to reverse everything out of sheer pettiness. If anything, they should acknowledge the president's long friendship with Epstein and pick Gill Sans as the default. That would be the ultimate "anti-woke" move I think.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#164Leaders and typefaces: In 1941 Adolf Hitler personally gave order to make the use of the Antiqua mandatory and forbade the use of Fraktur and Schwabacher typefaces. https://ligaturix.de/bormann.htm
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Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#165This is why I'm seriously considering learning Chinese. Next 50 years won't be US lead. When senior government officials are spending time & public mindshare/attention on whether a particular font is or is not diverse then you know it is game over. The details don't matter...this being a topic at all is the news
You certainly won't have to worry about them changing fonts as easily...
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll never understand this silly take. they just took a venezuelan oil tanker. is that a joke to you? you might disagree with what they're doing, or argue they are incompetent , but joke is very strange take. they are very serious. ask some undocumented immigrants in the USA about how much they're joking. in fact - any country seeing what trump is doing both domestically and internationally and not taking their actio…
I think by 'joke' people mean "their actions are unreasonable to the point of ridicule, and were they less consequential would be akin to the performance of a circus clown instead of a diligent policy maker." But the rest of us just shorten that to "joke".
So it’s a partisan word then and basically devoid of meaning and consistency across political lines. When hasn’t the us political class been a joke by such a definition…? Perhaps when we owned slaves, or interned the Japanese?
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#167The left and right signalling is such a waste of everyone's time and effort. Reactive pettiness
Is it "signalling" when the left's change was for an accessibility reason, to enable more people to be able to easily read? Signaling means there's no tangible benefit to the change, so the Blinken's switch to a sans-serif font would not be signaling.
Rubio, however, specifically pointed out the symbolic (and malicious) gesture of his whole switch back to Times New Roman.
The left didn't react pettily. Please stop thinking the left are the right are the same when the facts show they are not. The left's change was for a demonstrative benefit. The right is doing it so fuck over people. You think these are the same.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#168Is Calibri actually more accessible? Every step of this story seems pointless and fake.
One of the reasons Calibri was selected over Times New Roman was it has a lower rate of OCR transcription errors, making documents using it easier for people using screen readers.
Link on that, as OCR should be more reliable with Times New Roman due to significant serifs.
Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#169Leaders and typefaces: In 1941 Adolf Hitler personally gave order to make the use of the Antiqua mandatory and forbade the use of Fraktur and Schwabacher typefaces. https://ligaturix.de/bormann.htm
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Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
#170Such a dingbat move