The US State Department is returning to Times New Roman and calling it a return to tradition. In a memo issued Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered all US diplomats and offices worldwide to use Times New Roman, 14-point, for official documents, reversing a Calibri requirement adopted under the Biden administration.

The memo, titled “Return to Tradition," said the serif typeface better reflects the “dignity, consistency, and formality" expected in government correspondence. Times New Roman had been the department standard since 2004 until a 2023 directive, issued on the recommendation of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, switched the standard font to Calibri to address accessibility concerns.

Rubio dismissed the change as purely cosmetic, noting that accessibility-re

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