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Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

reuters.com

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Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#141

Post by lurk2 »

cogman10 wrote: post #111
yincrash wrote: post #97

Even 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.

Calibri is a Sans Serif font and because it has been the default Microsoft Office font for more than a decade, it is fake email job haver coded (i.e. it appeals to young and middle-aged women who work in HR, this demographic being predominantly Democrat). Times New Roman is a Serif font which looks old and official to cater to boomers and has Roman in it to appeal to Zoomers who want to RETVRN with a V to tradition.

(I didn’t read the article as this is a non-story, but I’m definitely right).

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#142

Post by ebbi »

bravoetch wrote: post #128
websiteapi wrote: post #105

Earlier 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".

Thank you - exactly what I meant. I thought it was a common understanding when used in this context.

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#143

Post by legitster »

> "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."

So to reiterate, the department decided to move on from the 1992 default Word font to the 2007 Word default (1 year after it was no longer the default).

Nothing is safe from politics when even a font choice has become "woke".

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#144

Post by Eduard »

cogman10 wrote: post #111
yincrash wrote: post #97

Even 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.

Just guessing from what is written in the article: Calibri once was chosen by the former administration for accessibility reasons. Maybe the virtue signaling being that Calibri isn't great with respect to accessibility (and IMHO wasn't even designed for it in the first place).

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#145

Post by causal »

porridgeraisin wrote: post #66
js2 wrote: post #27

Previously: Times New Roman is being phased out at the State Department, replaced by Calibri 207 points|danso|3 years ago|256 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34427504

HN commentors on this font change harp on about how it's a waste of time (which it of course is), but that font change seemed to receive a more bland reaction. Funny.

Well yeah? It's not about the font, it's about the pettiness of the declared reasons for the reversal

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#146

Post by HPsquared »

zzo38computer wrote: post #55

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"). 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…

Come to think of it, I vs l vs 1 vs | is one advantage of serif fonts.

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#147

Post by embedding-shape »

> https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/addr...

> window.getComputedStyle(document.querySelector('.entry-content > p')).fontFamily

> '"Instrument Sans", sans-serif'

I guess The White House hasn't received the memo yet about how important serifs is for "presenting a unified, professional voice in all communications". What a joke.

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#148

Post by Havoc »

US has genuinely lost it

It genuinely feels like someone worked out that you don't actually need to build a better stealth bomber than the B2. You just need to infiltrate government enough to have them debate what fonts are woke

Then I think "nah surely not. can't be that easy". And then next week...another insane thing comes out of US republican camp. I'm starting to think one does indeed not need B2s to defeat an enemy

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#149

Post by [deleted] »

cogman10 wrote: post #111
yincrash wrote: post #97

Even 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.

[deleted]

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#150

Post by legitster »

WhyOhWhyQ wrote: post #108

Is Calibri actually more accessible? Every step of this story seems pointless and fake.

If I remember correctly Microsoft did a bunch of studies back in the day and found the Calibri had some of the best readability across a range of visibility and reading impairments (like dyslexia).

Serif fonts have some readability features of their own, specifically for printed word.

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