\n<\/p>\n
The State Department\u2019s decision to stop using the Calibri typeface in favor of Times New Roman shook one community far removed from the workings of government: type designers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it when, once in a while, typefaces come up to the top of the pile in the media news \u2014 that doesn\u2019t happen so often,\u201d said Sofie Beier, a type designer and professor at the Royal Danish Academy.<\/p>\n
The governmental order was written in Times New Roman, which the State Department had used from 2004 until it switched to Calibri in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wonder if it\u2019s all a bit of a distraction from what the State Department is actually doing, rather than the font they\u2019re doing it in,\u201d said Tobias Frere-Jones, a type designer known for Gotham, Interstate and other ubiquitous typefaces. \u201cBut it is an opportunity to talk about what makes things legible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legibility<\/strong> of a typeface is \u201cmostly related to how quickly you can read an individual letter,\u201d said Ms. Beier. \u201cYou could also call it the clarity of the letter shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n Type designers have rules of thumb about increasing legibility, many of which have been backed up by studies.<\/p>\n Times New Roman is a serif<\/strong> typeface, with small projections that mimic formal handwriting. Calibri is a sans serif<\/strong>, meaning \u201cwithout serifs.\u201d One study found that \u201cthe presence or absence of serifs had no effect on word recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n A higher x-height<\/strong> (the height of a lowercase \u201cx\u201d) and its relationship to ascending and descending letters like \u201cf\u201d and \u201cy\u201d can increase the perceived size of a font and its legibility.<\/p>\n A lower crossbar<\/strong> on the \u201ce\u201d \u2014 the most frequently used letter in English \u2014 can prevent the top of the \u201ce\u201d from appearing to collapse at small sizes.<\/p>\n More open apertures<\/strong>, the gaps in letters like \u201cc\u201d and \u201cs\u201d and \u201ce,\u201d can reduce the brain\u2019s tendency to close breaks in a nearly continuous shape.<\/p>\n A higher stroke contrast<\/strong> might reduce word recognition in some contexts. Serif fonts, like Times New Roman, tend to have more contrast between their thick and thin lines than sans serif fonts.<\/p>\n \u201cAll these different aspects of the letters or the typefaces, they interact,\u201d said Ms. Beier. Typeface design involves thousands of small decisions, all of which contribute to legibility.<\/p>\n Lucas de Groot, the Dutch type designer who created Calibri, first heard about the State Department news when a colleague posted it in Slack. \u201cThen the phone started ringing, and it hasn\u2019t stopped,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Calibri design was based on my experience,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the design process is not that scientific.\u201d That includes determining proportions for the x-height and other features. \u201cI think it\u2019s much more important how the stuff is perceived. And that\u2019s something that I do from the stomach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A classical serif typeface like Times New Roman can look great, Mr. de Groot said, \u201cbut of course it needs a lot of work to make it look great. And Times New Roman is possibly the worst choice to trying to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond letter shape and design, readability<\/strong> might be more important for matters of State.<\/p>\n \u201cReadability is about comprehension and speed, and not about \u2018Do you recognize this letter?\u2019\u2009\u201d said Sam Berlow, one of the founders of The Readability Consortium, which studies digital reading behavior. \u201cOverall, the research time after time says Times New Roman is not a great performer compared to Georgia, Verdana, Helvetica or even Arial.\u201d<\/p>\n When reading long-form text, the eye shifts across written lines in rapid movements, pausing briefly at points of interest. The design of a typeface and the context in which it appears can speed or slow this process.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a sweet spot between speed and comprehension. If you\u2019re moving too fast, your comprehension\u2019s going to be lower,\u201d said Mr. Berlow. \u201cThere are fonts that are very, very fast and easy to read, but comprehension is very low on them. For instance, Montserrat.\u201d<\/p>\n Calibri has generous letter spacing, which can help readers with reduced vision, while Times New Roman\u2019s many serifs tend to intrude on its relatively tighter spacing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a sort of conventional wisdom that serifs make things easier to read in long-form text. I used to believe that. I don\u2019t really anymore,\u201d Mr. Frere-Jones said. \u201cI think the more important aspect is the proportion of the letters and the amount of space in between them. And in that respect, Calibri does quite well in text and especially text on a screen, which I suspect was part of the previous decision to switch.\u201d<\/p>\n The State Department specifies fonts for paper and print, but those documents will be composed and read on screens. Times New Roman, which was first digitized for computer screens in the 1980s, has notable limitations compared to Calibri.<\/p>\n \u201cTimes New Roman doesn\u2019t fare very well on a screen. It\u2019s too delicate to survive on that pixel grid, all those fine serifs,\u201d said Mr. Frere-Jones.<\/p>\nReadability<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
From Paper to Screen<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n