Times New American: A Tale of Two Fonts

Political symbolism and historical connotations

• Several comments joke about which font best fits the current U.S. administration (Comic Sans, Comic Serif, Wingdings, “Trump Grotesque”).
• A side thread dives into Fraktur: its association with Nazi-era typography, the later “Judenlettern” decree banning it, and how using it today is seen as invoking poisonous historical baggage, even if ironically.
• Some argue the administration’s change is mostly a culture-war / “anti‑DEI” gesture rather than a design- or accessibility-driven decision.

Serif vs sans-serif, legibility, and accessibility

• Multiple users were taught “serif for print, sans for screens”; several note this was truer on low‑resolution displays, less so today.
• There is debate whether serif fonts genuinely improve reading flow, or if this is partly myth; long historical explanations of serifs and line length are given.
• Comic Sans is mentioned positively for dyslexic readers; others list layout techniques (ragged right, no hyphenation, extra line spacing) as more important for accessibility than specific fonts.

Government branding, Public Sans, and custom typefaces

• Many think using default system fonts (Calibri, TNR) signals lack of thought and brand identity.
• Several point out the U.S. already has an open, accessibility‑oriented government font (Public Sans), developed under a previous administration, and see ignoring it as wasteful and partisan.
• Others suggest a custom federal typeface is the obvious long‑term solution; skeptics say that’s overkill and expensive.

Times New Roman vs Calibri vs alternatives

• Designer commentary (quoted via company account) criticizes TNR as a legacy newspaper face poorly adapted to digital, with spacing and weight issues, while praising Calibri’s screen legibility and hinting.
• Many still find Calibri too “leasing office” / casual for high‑stakes government documents; TNR is described as banal but acceptably serious.
• Alternatives proposed: Century Schoolbook (as used by courts), Caslon, Garamond variants, Georgia, Libertinus, Baskerville, Public Sans, Verdana, Aptos.

Practical and technical considerations

• TNR’s ubiquity and “web-safe” status are cited as major reasons it persists; it renders on nearly all platforms and in old environments.
• Licensing and embedding constraints for fonts in Word/PDF are mentioned; using widely available fonts reduces compatibility headaches.
• Some complain about amateurish Word usage (mixed fonts in headers/footers, poor spacing, inconsistent indentation) being more glaring than the specific face.

Meta: social construction of “professionalism” in type

• Several agree with the article that serif = authority is largely learned through exposure (courts, academia, newspapers).
• Others insist people do intuitively read serif as more formal, even without explicit training, and that switching back to TNR is a reasonable, easily executed rollback—even if the stated political rationale is mocked as shallow and reactionary.