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amlutolast Thursday at 10:47 AM1 replyview on HN

IMO Calibri and Times New Roman are both poor choices: they are not free. The US Government’s works are not generally subject to copyright, and IMO it’s rather obnoxious for their fonts to be restricted. Also, Calibri is specifically a Microsoft font, and maybe the government should be a bit less beholden to Microsoft.

IMO the government should pick something available under an appropriate free license or commission a new font for the purpose.

(I personally much prefer Times New Roman to Calibri for printed documents, but that’s neither here nor there.)


Replies

tobrlast Thursday at 11:28 AM

US Gov already has an ”official” open source typeface, Public Sans. https://public-sans.digital.gov/

Unfortunately, it’s also intended to be not just accessible, but ”principles-driven”. Can’t have that. (More seriously, it’s probably more appropriate for screens than print)