US smites Courier New 12 in favour of TNR 14

Kawaii

Kawaii

Well-Known Member
US bans timed-honored typeface from diplomatic correspondence

WASHINGTON (AFP) - In a sign that no matter is too small to affect international diplomacy, the US State Department has issued an edict banning its longtime standard typeface from all official correspondence and replacing it with a "more modern" font.

In an internal memorandum distributed on Wednesday, the department declared "Courier New 12" -- the font and size decreed for US diplomatic documents for years -- to be obsolete and unacceptable after February 1.

"In response to many requests and with a view to making our written work easier to read, we are moving to a new standard font: 'Times New Roman 14'," said the memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by AFP on Thursday.

The new font "takes up almost exactly the same area on the page as Courier New 12, while offering a crisper, cleaner, more modern look," it said, adding that after February 1 "only Times New Roman 14 will be accepted."

"This applies to diplomatic notes," the memorandum said tersely.

There are only three exceptions to the draconian new typographical rules: telegrams, treaty materials prepared by the State Department's legal affairs office and documents drawn up for the president's signature, it said.

The memorandum offered no explanation for the exceptions, leaving foreign service officers to speculate as to whether the White House, US treaty partners and telegram readers are not yet able to handle the change.
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Lol?
 
I'm assuming the 12 and 14 refer to font size? Documents are going to Times New Roman 14? To make the inflated bullshit look even more inflated? :rolleyes:

I think the shift is good, Times New Roman is a more "modern" font. But going up two points in size ... :shrug:
 
Rose said:
I'm assuming the 12 and 14 refer to font size? Documents are going to Times New Roman 14? To make the inflated bullshit look even more inflated? :rolleyes:

I think the shift is good, Times New Roman is a more "modern" font. But going up two points in size ... :shrug:
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Attached is a comparison between the two fonts... Times New Roman sucks, not to mention it looks bloated at 14.
 
I like TNR at 12. It's an easy-to-read font and 99.9999 percent of all Windows machines have it installed. I agree that 14 is too big, but at 12 it's fine. Plus, at 12 it would be slightly smaller than Courier New 12, and considering how long some of the crap they put out is it would save two to four pages per correspondence at least.
 
I'd use Garamond or Bookman personally...bookman is good for tight text-less confusing and I prefer the serifs on Garamond to those on TNR

I also don't f'n believe that I'm voting on a font. :/
 
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