(WASHINGTON) — There’s a new serif in town!
The Calibri font is going the way of the typewriter at the State Department after Secretary of State Marco Rubio inked a memo mandating that the agency use only Times New Roman for official communications – and size 14 to boot, according to a department official.
The new directive, which was sent to all diplomats, is the latest action by the Trump administration to roll back diversity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The change is effective immediately, according to the directive.
Two years ago, Rubio’s predecessor, Antony Blinken, switched the State Department font to Calibri, on the recommendation of the State Department’s office of diversity and inclusion, in part to assist individuals with certain visual disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia.
“Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence,” Rubio wrote in an “action request,” first obtained by Reuters and The New York Times.
The Times New Roman typeface “aligns with the President’s One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations directive, underscoring the Department’s responsibility to present a unified, professional voice in all communications,” according to the State Department official, who said Times New Roman is considered more “formal and professional.”
“To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility] program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface,” Rubio wrote in the memo.
Rubio noted that Times New Roman had been the department’s official typeface for nearly 20 years, until the 2023 change.
State Department employees are expected to use Times New Roman for internal memoranda, papers prepared for principals, or documents shared externally, because the State Department leadership believes “consistent formatting strengthens credibility and supports a unified Department identity,” according to the directive.
Serif typefaces, which include Times New Roman, remain the standard in courts, legislatures and across federal agencies where the permanence and authority of the written record are paramount, the directive said.
“Aligning the Department’s practice with this standard ensures our communications reflect the same dignity, consistency, and formality expected in official government correspondence,” the State Department official said.
Molly Eagan, the CEO of VISIONS, a nonprofit that advocates for services to help the visually impaired, said in a statement to ABC News that font choices are crucial to accessibility.
“The State Department’s decision to move away from Calibri may seem minor, but for many people with vision impairment (myself included), readability is not a small detail – it’s essential. Calibri and other sans-serif fonts are widely recommended because they are easier to read for people with visual impairments,” Eagan said.
“At VISIONS, a nonprofit serving people who are blind or visually impaired across New York for nearly a century, we see every day how simple choices – like font, spacing, contrast, and layout – directly affect whether information is truly usable. This change is a reminder of why accessibility should remain a core consideration in all public communication,” Eagan added.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
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