The Times are a-changin’ – and the Home Office shot the serif first

HOME Office civil servants have been told to stop using Times New Roman because it is harder to see for readers who are visually impaired or have difficulty reading.

Last week, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made global headlines when he sent a cable to his diplomats instructing them to stop using the font.

However, the UK Home Office got there well before America’s top diplomat, advising its civil servants to avoid Times New Roman a year ago.

A Home Office website says that the department’s design system and that used by the main Gov.uk site “use fonts chosen for clarity and readability”.

“In emails, documents, or third-party products that allow limited customisation, choose a font that is open and clear. Because all users have different needs, there’s no such thing as a fully ‘accessible’ font, but usually it’s better to choose a sans-serif font (such as Arial) over a serif font (such as Times New Roman).” The website also tells officials not to use italics “as this text can be difficult for dyslexic users to read,” and adds that capitalisation “should be used sparingly for similar reasons”.

A Home Office spokesman said the page was published last February.

It is not the first UK public body to turn its back on Times New Roman. In 2021, the Supreme Court provoked rumblings in the legal community when it ditched the typeface for its judgments in favour of Calibri.

The court had used the font since it succeeded the judicial committee of the House of Lords in 2009.

Debate has raged for years over whether typefaces that use serifs – the decorative “wings” and “feet” that appear on characters – are superior to those without them, known as sans serif.

While some argue that sans serif fonts are more readable on computer screens, others believe that the added strokes of serif fonts can help guide readers’ eyes along the line of type and reduce confusion.

The US State Department has used Times New Roman as its standard typeface since 2004. However, last week The Washington Post obtained a cable sent by Mr Blinken telling staff that from February 6 they should “adopt Calibri as the standard font for all requested papers”. The subject line for the cable read: “The Times (New Roman) are a-Changin”.

Mr Blinken said the shift to sans serif would make it easier for people with disabilities who use certain assistive technologies to read communications, and that the change had been recommended by his office of diversity and inclusion.

However, some diplomats have objected to the move, with The Washington Post reporting that one had branded it “sacrilege”. Another official said that they were “anticipating an internal revolt”.

Times New Roman was invented by the British typographer Stanley Morison for The Times in 1932. Although it was dropped by the paper in 1972, the typeface went on to become a staple of word processors.