Overview
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed U.S. diplomats to replace Calibri with 14-point Times New Roman in all official documents starting Wednesday.
- Rubio framed the 2023 Calibri adoption as a wasteful DEIA effort and said it did not meaningfully reduce accessibility-related document remediation.
- A State Department statement says serif fonts convey formality expected in government correspondence and that consistent formatting strengthens credibility and identity.
- Accessibility experts counter that sans-serif fonts like Calibri are generally easier to read on screens and for people with low vision or reading disabilities, noting ADA requirements for sans-serif fonts on signage and displays.
- Calibri’s designer Lucas de Groot called the reversal a bad choice for on-screen readability and rejected the 'woke' label, as CNN and The Daily Show segments mocked the controversy.