December 30, 2025
Font wars at Foggy Bottom
Calibri Wasn't Fit for the State Department; Neither Is Times New Roman
State Dept goes back to Times; commenters demand Public Sans and crack Comic Sans jokes
TLDR: The State Department ordered a switch back to 14‑pt Times New Roman, ditching 15‑pt Calibri. Comments erupted: jokes about Comic Sans, roasts of “Microsoft Word defaults,” calls for free Public Sans, and a camp saying rollbacks are fine—because fonts signal power, accessibility, and government brand.
The U.S. State Department just ordered a throwback: Secretary Marco Rubio’s “Return to Tradition” memo moves official docs from 15‑pt Calibri to 14‑pt Times New Roman, and the internet instantly declared a font war. The hottest take? Comedy. One top comment begged for “Comic Sans or maybe Comic Serif” for “double‑super‑serious” memos, turning bureaucracy into a meme.
But the shade got sharper. Branding purists roasted both choices as “Microsoft Word defaults,” arguing it screams “no thought given.” Others channeled practicality and values: “Shouldn’t public documents use a free font?” Cue Public Sans, the government’s own open typeface that cleanly distinguishes tricky characters like lowercase l and uppercase I for readability.
Then came the rollback crowd. After seeing samples, one commenter said Calibri at 15‑pt looked “truly awful,” and that jumping back to Times is a defensible fix—even if it’s not perfect. The serif vs sans debate reignited too: one reader asked if serifs actually improve long‑form reading or if that’s just an urban legend.
Lurking under the kerning: politics. Rubio’s memo, published in full by John Gruber, ties the choice to “tradition” and aligns with a broader anti‑DEI push, making this font fight about power, accessibility, and the government’s vibe as much as letters.
Key Points
- •On December 9, a memo titled “Return to Tradition” mandated 14-point Times New Roman for all U.S. State Department documents.
- •The memo reverses a 2023 directive that had required 15-point Calibri.
- •Rubio’s stated rationale includes the authority and formality of serif typefaces and alignment with institutional conventions.
- •The memo links the 2023 change to DEIA and positions the reversion as a correction, citing Executive Order 14151.
- •The article explains the historical association of serifs with Roman inscriptions and their perceived ties to tradition and ceremony.