NYT: Rubio Deletes Calibri as the State Department’s Official Typeface

James Montalbano
James Montalbano Posts: 133
in Miscellaneous News
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/us/politics/rubio-state-department-font.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7k8.Ic66.7K9zz7iDZJH1&smid=url-share

Comments

  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,559
    That is hilarious.
  • Scott-Martin Kosofsky
    Scott-Martin Kosofsky Posts: 436
    What would suit them best is a blackletter, all caps, though I suppose that the term “blackletter” might itself seem too woke.
  • Yves Michel
    Yves Michel Posts: 224
    Vote for Navratilova !
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,214
    Scott-Martin Kosofsky said:
    What would suit them best is a blackletter, all caps, though I suppose that the term “blackletter” might itself seem too woke.
    I think they would find blackletter too revealing, not legible enough, and too weird.
    My initial reaction had been that something more conservative than Times New Roman would be, for example, a Jenson.
    But on further reflection, as they would want something that was in some way "American", I think that Caslon would work. Of course, Caslon, like Times New Roman, comes from Britain, but at least Caslon is associated with the American Revolution in a number of ways.
    Yves Michel said:
    Vote for Navratilova !
    A web search did not turn up a typeface by that name.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,319
    In privileging classicist style over (putative) legibility/readability, Rubio is following the practice identified by Walter Benjamin, “Fascism is the aestheticization of politics.”
  • James Montalbano
    James Montalbano Posts: 133
    More on Calibri from the NYT:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/us/calibri-font-history-rubio-times-new-roman.html?unlocked_article_code=1.708.nExd.VT4GuqFF3cEp&smid=url-share

  • Kent Lew
    Kent Lew Posts: 1,024
    edited December 11
    Funny that the 12/11 NYT article’s author refers to Calibri as being “invented” and de Groot as its “inventor”. 
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,214
    edited December 11
    John Hudson said:
    I for one think it is entirely excellent that the US State Department is reverting to using a typeface designed by a committed Marxist who was imprisoned during WW1 as a conscientious objector. Bravo!

    From that perspective, surely it would be even more appropriate for them to be using Perpetua?
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 2,033
    Maybe type designers in the USA need to start calling themselves “type inventors” and filing design patents on everything.
  • John Butler
    John Butler Posts: 352
    According to the article, the switch from Times to Calibri occurred during the Biden Administration, when Microsoft themselves were already replacing Calibri with Bierstadt/Aptos.
    Nothing against Calibri, aside from my preference against the broad category of sans in general, but if one is to “modernize” Times, I’d start with STIX Two.
    Meanwhile I noticed the Guardian article linked in another thread shows a picture of a US Customs & Border Protection sign set in Joanna, which happens to be my favorite Gill design.
  • Yves Michel
    Yves Michel Posts: 224
    I hope the Great Peacemaker will bring a ceasefire between classicists and progressists. That could help him for the next Nobel Prize; Gaza, Congo or Ukraine will not !

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