[LucasFonts]

Our studio, LucasFonts, designed Calibri. Here are our CEO Luc(as) de Groot’s thoughts on the matter:

The decision to abandon Calibri on the grounds of it being a so-called “wasteful diversity font” is both amusing and regrettable. Calibri was specifically designed to enhance readability on modern computer screens and was selected by Microsoft in 2007 to replace Times New Roman as the default font in the Office suite. There were sound reasons for moving away from Times: Calibri performs exceptionally well at small sizes and on standard office monitors, whereas serif fonts like Times New Roman tend to appear more distorted. While serif fonts are well-suited to high-resolution displays, such as those found on modern smartphones, on typical office screens the serifs introduce unnecessary visual noise and can be particularly problematic for users with impaired vision, such as older adults.

Professional typography can be achieved with both serif and sans-serif fonts. However, Times New Roman—a typeface older than the current president—presents unique challenges. Originally crafted in Great Britain for newspaper printing, Times was optimised for paper, with each letterform meticulously cut and tested for specific sizes. In the digital era, larger size drawings were repurposed as models, resulting in a typeface that appears too thin and sharp when printed at high quality.

Serif fonts are often perceived as more traditional, but they are also more demanding to use effectively. While a skilled typographer can, in theory, produce excellent results with Times, using it in its default digital form is not considered professional practice.

Calibri, by contrast, incorporates extensive spacing adjustments and language-specific refinements. The digital version of Times New Roman, developed in the early days of computing, offers only minimal kerning and letter-pair adjustments. This is especially evident in words set in all capitals—such as “CHICAGO”—where the spacing is inconsistent: the letters “HIC” are tightly packed, while “CAG” are spaced too far apart. Microsoft cannot rectify these issues without altering the appearance of existing documents.

[nabla9]

I think we all can agree that Comic Sans MS reflects the current US government best, both spiritually and aesthetically.

[ndkap]

As an aside, I didn't know what Comic Sans looks like, so I searched on Google and it rendered the whole page in that font. I tried with other Fonts too like Arial and Times New Roman, and it did the same there. So cool!

[adolph]

Your comment may be in jest but there is some evidence that "easier to read" does not benefit "retain what was read."

  And that brings us back to these ugly fonts. Because their shapes are 
  unfamiliar, because they are less legible, they make the mind work a little 
  harder; the slight frisson of Comic Sans wakes us up or at least prevents us 
  from leaning on the usual efficiencies. “The complex fonts . . . function 
  like an alarm,” Alter writes. They signal “that we need to recruit additional 
  mental resources to overcome that sense of difficulty.”
  

https://lithub.com/the-ugliness-of-comic-sans-has-a-practica...

[nimbius]

i tend to find the kerning issues noted by the calibri team are moot. most Times New Roman is perfectly legible with careful observation and maybe a fresh cup of covfefe.

[lo_zamoyski]

I would say it’s worse than that. Read Plato’s “Republic” and you may come to appreciate a much more expansive appropriateness of Comic Sans, beyond just the current administration.

[butchcassidi]

I would rather see Wingdings.

[jpster]

I beg to differ. Wingdings is more like it.

[Cthulhu_]

I bet they want to get rid of Calibri because it was designed by a Dutch person. There's only two things I hate in this world, people who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch.

(disclaimer: I am Dutch).

[mghackerlady]

I've always heard this joke with the french instead of the dutch

[Uehreka]

> (disclaimer: I am Dutch).

Well then I suppose it’s only appropriate to say: Goede fhtagn

[hilbert42]

This reply is far too polite, but I understand protocol and necessity dictates those words.

If you cannot say it then let me: that spiteful, revengeful petty-minded fuckwit needs to be told that it's a fucked decision of the first order, and that someone in his position has no right nor the time to be involved in grinding the minutiae of state so fine.

Heaven help us, please!

[rbanffy]

> Heaven help us, please!

Midterms are coming. You know what to do.

[mschuster91]

> Our studio, LucasFonts, designed Calibri.

Damn, the diversity of people one can meet here on HN continues to amaze me. Even after almost 13 years.

> The decision to abandon Calibri on the grounds of it being a so-called “wasteful diversity font” is both amusing and regrettable.

The cruelty (in this case, against people with visual impairments) is the actual point, as always, and the appearance of "going back to the good old times" is the visual that's being sold to the gullibles.

[rob74]

May I ask what your thoughts are on fonts that prioritise legibility over everything else, like Atkinson Hyperlegible? IMHO Calibri has a better balance between legibility and a consistent/polished look. The Munich transportation company MVG wanted to set an example here and adapted this font for their information screens at subway stations, on trains etc. There's one catch though: because Atkinson Hyperlegible tends to have wider glyphs than the previous (also sans serif, of course) font they used, they had to reduce the font size to fit the same amount of information on the screens, so the increased readability is partly counteracted by the decreased font size.

[Sunspark]

As a lay person who likes to look at fonts closely, the purpose they are intended for matters. I don't like the Atkinson font for body text because I find it too round. For a transit sign I suppose it is fine since it would be printed at display sizes and only momentarily gazed at.

Calibri is a high-quality font that works as body text, but it's cold.

Times NR on paper is fine, on screen it is not fine unless you have a high resolution display.

[behnamoh]

Politics aside, I never liked Calibri, until last year. I think it has a place for small text printed on paper, but other than that, there are far better fonts out there. The non-sharp/round edges/corners and the fact that it looks a bit childish make me not want to use it in anything serious/professional. It's also waaay over-used by people who don't have a taste in design and just select the default font in their PowerPoint/Word files.

[tracker1]

Calibri is a pretty nice screen font. That said, I would rather see official documents in a non-commercially licensed font face that can be used by any/all OSes and platforms without incumbrances.

[scelerat]

The current administration is regressive and explicitly, triumphantly anti-expert.

Within this environment the decision to eschew the font that was expertly designed for present needs in favor of one designed in the past for different ones makes perfect sense.

[notachatbot123]

I love how emphasize is given to accessibility for older adults, such as the orange man. But I guess he gets his printouts with few words and big fonts anyways.

[Tor3]

The way he writes indicates that he has very little experience with reading in the first place. Weird wording, strange capitalization and punctiation, etc.

[bayarearefugee]

Trump doesn't read, according to Pete Davidson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUW3HfPEdKY

[rob74]

...and then he ignores them.

[red-iron-pine]

lol he's not reading printouts.

[pyuser583]

“Modern computer screens” have changed substantially since 2007. Calibri was not designed for 4k.

That’s why Microsoft no longer sets it as default, and it is expected to be phased out by institutional consumers.

Calibri served its time. But it’s time is over.

[johannesrexx]

Your Calibri font is Microsoft proprietary and is not open source. It exists so that MS Office documents won't look right on non-Microsoft systems. It's a dirty aspect of Microsoft's Embrace-Extend-Extinguish stategy meant to further its monopoly. It's disgusting that you cite all of these wonder benefits of Calibri without admitting the true underlying reason it exists.

[BasilofBasiley]

>Serif fonts are often perceived as more traditional, but they are also more demanding to use effectively. While a skilled typographer can, in theory, produce excellent results with Times, using it in its default digital form is not considered professional practice.

This reads like your CEO is mixing an argument against serifs with an argument against Times specifically. Later on they make a case against Times' lack of support for more modern features in digital fonts, which is a fine argument, but a question comes to mind: is the solution a sans-serif font?

It seems to me upon reading the article that Rubio's staff, or Rubio himself, is being overly specific with the font and I suspect that, being uninformed, what they really want is a serif font rather than Times New Roman, specifically. Maybe I'm wrong.

In any case, I'd like for you/your CEO to make it clearer, if you will: do you believe official government communications should use a sans-serif font altogether or is it just a problem with Times? Or both?

On a more personal note, is there any serif font you'd suggest as an alternative?

Thank you. (And sorry if I read this wrong.)

[tbyehl]

> what they really want

What they really want is to smear something the previous administration did as DEIA, woke, wasteful, and anti-conservative (ie: change).

TNR is awful and anyone who actually cares about serifs knows there are better options.