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chinathrow ◴[] No.46228736[source]
> U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor Antony Blinken's decision to adopt Calibri a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.

What a waste of government time and spending.

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1. JKCalhoun ◴[] No.46231787[source]
"wasteful diversity move"

Wild. I'm curious now if someone has an ordered list of fonts from the gayest to the straightest.

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2. mgkimsal ◴[] No.46232602[source]
> if a person is visually impaired, why wouldn't they have tools at their disposal to make things readable?

If it's on a screen in a browser, probably. If it's printed, or on a display not under a reader's control, probably not.

FWIW, I'm partially split. I generally prefer sans-serif overall - have for decades. I think I slightly prefer serif for some printed material visually, but... when I actually have to engage and read it, for long periods, I think I tend to opt for sans-serif. Noticed this on my kindle years ago, and kindle reader now - I usually swap to sans-serif options (I think it's been my default for a while).

3. stetrain ◴[] No.46233368[source]
If changing fonts once was a wasteful empty gesture that they used to pat themselves on the back and which didn't benefit anyone, then isn't changing it a second time the exact same thing?
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4. biophysboy ◴[] No.46233392[source]
Calibri is a tool to make things more readable
5. cestith ◴[] No.46233509[source]
People do have tools to make things more readable. Some of those tools are professionally designed fonts and typefaces which are easier for people with low vision to read.

You sound like someone saying we shouldn’t have ramps and elevators because crutches exist.

6. hamburglar ◴[] No.46233582[source]
> They haven't. And you really think changing to Calibri benefitted anyone?

The wild thing is that even if you don’t respect the switch to Calibri on the grounds that it doesn’t really benefit anyone and is therefore wasted effort for little or no gain, the decision to switch back is a decision to double that wasted effort.

That said, it’s clear from the daring fireball story linked in the thread that this is being super overblown and Rubio isn’t really making an argument that Calibri is wasting money. This is an arbitrary decision.

7. fragrom ◴[] No.46233711{3}[source]
No, you see, it's only wasteful when the OTHER guy does it. /s
8. tracker1 ◴[] No.46234387[source]
If I were to guess, the switch to Calibri in the first place was because people were able to use the MS default in practice instead of having to hand change it, or use "official" templates, which imo is probably more appropriate anyway.

I think Calibri is arguably a better font, to me the bigger issue is the commercial license used in govt works.