New Serif in Town: On Politics and Power of Fonts

©Pexels by Brett Jordan

When governments argue over fonts, it’s never just about style. From Washington to Islamabad, typefaces have become symbols of power, ideology, and even guilt.

Some say actions speak louder than words. That may be true. But what about written words? By the same logic, does the font speak louder than the words themselves? Fonts may seem like a trivial detail in a document, yet their selection carries serious implications, from politics and economics to potential criminal consequences.

Times New Rubio

On December 10, in an official department memo, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a seemingly minor yet symbolic change for state officials, scrapping Calibri just two years after its crowning and reverting both internal and external communications to Times New Roman. This change aimed to “bring back decorum and professionalism” within the government and dismantle the “wasteful DEIA program” implemented under Antony Blinken. In 2023, the sans-serif Calibri was chosen over the classic serif staple due to its accessibility for those with visual disabilities, ending 21 consecutive years of Times New Roman’s reign. 

This “minor” policy shift soon sparked debate over whether the font choice was a herald (pun intended) of broader ideological battles in U.S. diplomacy.

To Serif or Not to Serif?  

Calibri came to life in the early 2000s, designed by Lucas de Groot. The Dutch type designer created it specifically for the Microsoft ClearType text-rendering system, intended to perform well with longer text on computer screens. With its relatively large x-height, open counters, and soft, rounded terminals, it is known as one of the most readable fonts, even at small sizes and low resolutions. Officially released in 2007, this sans-serif quickly became the default font in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, firmly establishing its reign in the world of digitally written words. 

On the other side of the spectrum is the classic, serif, Times New Roman. As the name suggests, it was designed in the 1930s to meet the needs of The Times of London. Given that printed newspapers were still in their glory days, with its narrow letterforms and strong serifs, Times New Roman reflected practical concerns of its time, and allowed editors to squeeze more words into columns while still maintaining clarity and keeping costs low. Only when journalism moved onto the screens, following the zeitgeist, did all of Times New Roman’s once-valued characteristics become issues that could not be overcome. Even on high-resolution screens, the letters can be hard to read, particularly for those with lower vision, especially at 2 a.m. For a font designed to make reading news easier, Calibri soon would end up in the news itself.

Fontgate

Rubio’s decision was not the first time Calibri had sparked political debate. Back in 2017, this Dutch creation became a notable piece of forensic evidence in a case known internationally as “Fontgate”. It all began with the Panama Papers: a massive leak of 11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, which exposed a global network of over 200,000 shell companies used by the rich and powerful in order to become even richer and more powerful. Few individuals are inclined to pay taxes and provide a complete and accurate declaration of their assets.

One of the names on that list was Maryam Nawaz Sharif, daughter of Pakistan’s then-Prime Minister, who owned, through such a shell company, four luxury central London flats. The opposition argued that the money for these properties came from her father through corrupt means. The key question became who was the beneficial owner of the companies holding the flats. 

According to the Panama Papers, Mariam was the owner, yet she claimed to be only a trustee, with her brother as the ultimate beneficial owner. This was speculated to be arranged to protect her political image, as at that time, Maryam was considered a potential future Prime Minister, while her brother remained a businessman uninterested in politics.  To support her claim, she delivered a trust deed signed by both her and her brother, dated February 2006.  It was the font that betrayed her. Remember when Calibri was officially published? The investigative team quickly connected the dots and realised that the document was typed in Calibri, which had not been released to the general public yet. The deed was therefore proclaimed “fake” or “falsified”, and Maryam’s political ambitions were overshadowed by two words: criminal offence.  Yet politics, like typography, welcomes comebacks. In 2024, she was elected the Chief Minister of Punjab, a position she still holds today.  

The Price of a Word

In some cases, fonts cost people a political career. In other, the price tag is literal: $136 million federally. This is the number that 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani gave when asked how much money the U.S. government could save on fonts. In 2014, the teen claimed that up to $370 million, if states included, could stay in the government’s pockets by swapping Times New Roman for its thinner cousin Garamond, which he assessed as using 30% less ink. What started as a school project became a news sensation and earned him praise from journals and the Government Printing Office. Unfortunately, Garamond’s triumph did not last long, not that it ever began, as experts quickly sized up the number and found out that Garamond’s “savings” stemmed from a smaller x-height at the same point size, and not true efficiency. As typography expert Thomas Phinney pointed out, to keep the same legibility, a larger size would be needed, evening out the savings arising from the font’s smaller “size”. 

In an era of digital communication, including diplomacy, fonts seem to be more than a medium. The typeface we choose does not simply present the words but also imbues them with tone, credibility, and authority. Just as birthday card wishes do not fit 11-point Calibri, the same way an academic article does not fit Comic Sans. At least not according to the American Psychological Association (APA). Policymakers, corporations, and even advertisers. 

After all, as handwriting fades away and digital design defines the public voice, the visual representation of words becomes inseparable from their meaning. Fonts frame perception the same way tone frames speech.

And since there is no coming back to penmanship now, it seems that people should pay attention not only to what they write, but also to what they write in. 

1050 words, originally typed out in Inter 11.