Oliver Conway

His predecessor in the Biden administration opted for Calibri because apparently its lack of decorative angular features made it more accessible for people with disabilities.

And it was a Microsoft Office default setting.

Mr Rubio called it a wasteful diversity move.

Lucas de Groot is the Danish type designer who came up with Calibri.

Sean Lay asked him for his reaction.

It's a hilarious and sad news item.

I really don't understand it.

Do you think Calibri is woke in any way?

No.

I mean, it was designed to facilitate reading on modern computer screens, and it was chosen to replace Times New Roman, the typeface that Rubio wants to go back to now, in 2007.

Calibri was designed to work well in tiny sizes and on coarse office screens, which it still does, much better than Times New Roman.

It's especially meant for reading long pieces of text on screen, so the rhythm is great.

And when you see it in big sizes, it's a friendly typeface.

It has a warmth, maybe even a little bit humanistic, even though it's a sensory font.

Yes, because one of the quotes from Marco Rubio's instruction to diplomats around the world was, he said they were going to go back to Times New Roman to restore decorum to the department's written products.

Still, SensRef works better in small sizes on core screens.

I'm just on the question of screens.

Yeah, just briefly and finally, are you confident that Calibri will survive this outrage?

Absolutely, yeah.

Typeface designer Lucas de Groot.