Calibri
Shares rank 4 of 26 typefaces by recommenders
Liked for clear, readable screen text at small sizes. Critics find it too casual for official documents and dislike its commercial Microsoft license.
Liked for clear, readable screen text at small sizes. Critics find it too casual for official documents and dislike its commercial Microsoft license.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 36
- approval share
- 31%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy to read on screens
“Calibri is a pretty nice screen font. That said, I would rather see official documents in a non-commercially licensed font face”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “easy to read on a variety of screens, prints clearly and consistently, scales well”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “Calibri performs exceptionally well at small sizes and on standard office monitors”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” - Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri”
- Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri”
- Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri”
Strong readability, accessible to readers
“Microsoft did a bunch of studies back in the day and found the Calibri had some of the best readability”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “What Calibri is, is accessible -- more easily read by people with vision problems.”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Carlito's Way” “Calibri has a better balance between legibility and a consistent/polished look”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” Clean, consistent, polished look
“easy to read on a variety of screens, prints clearly and consistently, scales well”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “Calibri has a better balance between legibility and a consistent/polished look”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “the font that was expertly designed for present needs”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Too casual for official documents
“Calibri does convey a sense of casualness — and more so, modernity — that is not appropriate for the U.S. State Department.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “makes it look like you did not put any thought into your brand and chose the default”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Calibri Wasn't Fit for the State Department; Neither Is Times New Roman” “correspondence set in Calibri looks like something dispatched from a leasing office”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Calibri Wasn't Fit for the State Department; Neither Is Times New Roman” - Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Calibri Wasn't Fit for the State Department; Neither Is Times New Roman”
- Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface”
Microsoft proprietary, commercial license
“I think Calibri is arguably a better font, to me the bigger issue is the commercial license used in govt works.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “Calibri is a pretty nice screen font. That said, I would rather see official documents in a non-commercially licensed font face”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “Calibri is specifically a Microsoft font, and maybe the government should be a bit less beholden to Microsoft.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” - Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri”
Uppercase I and lowercase l look alike
“Any font that makes the uppercase "i" and the lowercase "L" look the same is absolute garbage.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “One potential source of confusion in Calibri is a visible homoglyph”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “Calibri font has "I" and "l" the same, according to Wikipedia.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” Ugly and cold appearance
“It's one of the ugliest fonts I've ever had to use, somehow looking uglier than even joke fonts like comic sans”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “Calibri is a high-quality font that works as body text, but it's cold.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” “15 point Calibri on official government documents was truly awful”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Calibri Wasn't Fit for the State Department; Neither Is Times New Roman”
Other typefaces people recommend
The four most recommended other typefaces, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Times New Roman | 35 | 28 | 56% | 4 | — | — |
| Atkinson Hyperlegible | 23 | 2 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Shantell Sans | 19 | 1 | 95% | 2 | — | — |
| CalibriThis page | 16 | 36 | 31% | 1 | — | — |
| Nebula Sans | 16 | 21 | 43% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 55 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the choice of Calibri was one step away from Comic Sans”
“Calibri always had a bit of a web page vibe, not official document vibe.”
“Not only is the new choice of font unfortunate at best”
“correspondence set in Calibri looks like something dispatched from a leasing office”
“I never understood why they didn't use the former, which already existed”
“Is it better than Calibri? Yes.”
“That argument against TNR is just as strong for Calibri”
“they are default fonts and receive the social connotations of that”
“No knock on Calibri, which I admire.”
“A sure sign somebody never learned how to use Microsoft Word.”
“15 point Calibri on official government documents was truly awful”
“makes it look like you did not put any thought into your brand and chose the default”
“It beats the bad dream material of every car using Calibri as the only font.”
“What Calibri is, is accessible -- more easily read by people with vision problems.”
“Your Calibri font is Microsoft proprietary and is not open source.”
“It's one of the ugliest fonts I've ever had to use, somehow looking uglier than even joke fonts like comic sans”
“Any font that makes the uppercase "i" and the lowercase "L" look the same is absolute garbage.”
“I think Calibri is arguably a better font, to me the bigger issue is the commercial license used in govt works.”
“the font that was expertly designed for present needs”
“Calibri is a pretty nice screen font. That said, I would rather see official documents in a non-commercially licensed font face”
“a tool to make things more readable”
“Calibri is a high-quality font that works as body text, but it's cold.”
“Calibri has a better balance between legibility and a consistent/polished look”
“Frankly, Calibri is an ugly and poorly designed typeface.”
“Calibri is specifically a Microsoft font, and maybe the government should be a bit less beholden to Microsoft.”
“Calibri performs exceptionally well at small sizes and on standard office monitors”
“Calibri looks better than TNR on a low dpi screen”
“Calibri works just fine on my machine.”
“I never liked Calibri when it was pushed aggressively by MS and showed up everywhere”
“facepalming that the previous administration did switch to Calibri”
“neither Times New Roman nor Calibri are very good fonts”
“easy to read on a variety of screens, prints clearly and consistently, scales well”
“Only when used in a context where they can be confused.”
“Microsoft did a bunch of studies back in the day and found the Calibri had some of the best readability”
“Calibri is an easier to read font on screens”
“Calibri does convey a sense of casualness — and more so, modernity — that is not appropriate for the U.S. State Department.”
“Calibri is a font designed to be easier to read on screens”
“the only people who should be using Calibri are people who don’t realize that Microsoft Word lets you pick other fonts”
“One potential source of confusion in Calibri is a visible homoglyph”
“Calibri font has "I" and "l" the same, according to Wikipedia.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.