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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

#291

Post by icecube123 »

legitster wrote: post #150
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.

You are correct. Microsoft invested significantly to create a modern properly designed font that is easy to read on a variety of screens, prints clearly and consistently, scales well, and can do italics, bold, etc well.

I think this came out back with Office 2007 or something. I believe Aptos is actually the new next generation font that should generally be considered an enhancement to Calibri.

While Microsoft isnt great at many things, their investment in font design and support is outstanding.

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

#292

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

Havoc wrote: post #179
CodingJeebus wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read up on the state of the Chinese economy, it’s not a given they’ll be in the drivers seat long term either.

I know they're leveraged to the hilt, their demographics are shaky AF etc. ...but end of the day productive capacity is what matters. I don't see anyone close on that mix of pace, tech, low cost, ability to execute and scale. A strong argument could be made on any of those metrics that someone could beat them fair and square, but the whole blend...there is nobody even competing in same league and that lead looks like…

> their demographics are shaky AF

Every major country's demographics are shaky. Japan and S.Korea are already shrinking. The US is propped up by, uh, low-quality immigration, and fertility has nevertheless dropped to record lows. The large countries of Europe are either basket-cases, tinderboxes, or both. Germany and Italy haven't had above-replacement TFR since 1970!

China's not doing great, but having a population reservoir of 1.4B can make up for a lot of deficiencies. If everybody shrinks or becomes utterly dysfunctional, I'd bet that a vast, productive, essentially monoethnic nation weathers the storm better than the rest.

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

#293

Post by chrismorgan »

bjoli wrote: post #52
treetalker wrote: post #22

Butterick on TNR: ( https://practicaltypography.com/times-new-roman-alternatives... ) > When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. It says, “I submitted to the font of least resistance.” Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice, like the blackness of deep space is not a color. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void. > If you…

People like this makes me want to use Times New Roman more. Maybe not Butterick specifically (the website is fine), but all those people that make a blog and pick a font before even knowing what they even want to write. Most of the time people change the default my web browser has, they make things worse. For a font choice to be any kind of personal expression in my eyes, you first need everything else in place: cont…

> Most of the time people change the default my web browser has, they make things worse.

In Firefox: Settings → Fonts → Advanced… → untick Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above. I’ve been running this way for almost six years now; it makes the web so much better.

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

#294

Post by icecube123 »

rcpt wrote: post #192
oldsklgdfth wrote: post #183

Slightly tangential, is there any chance this is motivated by profit or someone making money off this? Otherwise, seems kinda benign and random.

It's probably to ensure people keep talking about "woke" which tends to be good for the right.

Its exactly this. Choosing a font that makes things easier for disabled people, and those with limited sight is far too “woke” for 2025.

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

#295

Post by davchana »

Jailbird wrote: post #279
irishcoffee wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought I was the only one that still crossed a seven and slashed a zero. I don’t dot an ‘O’ however.

I cross my sevens! I'll consider starting to slash my zeros. Seems legit.

In india its considered bad omen to slash 7s.

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

#296

Post by b00ty4breakfast »

yes, so wasteful to select a different font in 2025. Real cost-saving measure switching from the evil woke-font calibri to the strong masculine Times New Roman. Thank God Marco Rubio was on the case to set the universe back into alignment with this big-balled move.

Terry Gilliam at his most deranged couldn't dream up this nonsense.

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

#299

Post by iambateman »

You know what they always say…never waste a good crisis.

This is our opportunity to tell our friends that neither Times New Roman nor Calibri are very good fonts.

If they’re using Word—and they definitely are—Aptos is a better choice than either.

If they want to look fancy and have a serif in their life, maybe they could try a little Cambria.

But if they have a twinkle in their eye and seem like they want to learn, take a moment to introduce them to the wide and glorious world of Roboto. Tell them about the wonders of medium and light and semi-bold and extra-bold and wide and display and condensed and custom ligatures. Give them a taste of what real office typography could’ve been if Microsoft didn’t absolutely destroy it in the 90’s.

Open their mind. Show them the truth. This is your time.

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

#300

Post by [deleted] »

ajross wrote: post #171
IshKebab wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people tend not to Yeah because normal people never have to deal with alphanumeric strings...

No, because normal people can read "l00l" as a number just fine and don't actually care if the underlying encoding is different. AI won't care either. It's just us on-the-spectrum nerds with our archaic deterministic devices and brains trained on them that get wound up about it. Designing a font for normal readers is just fine .

[deleted]
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