Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has upset people all over the world by changing typeface in its latest catalog.

Thousands of people all over the world have signed the campaign "Ikea, please get rid of Verdana", started by Romanian design consultant Marius Ursache, as they feel the Swedish furniture chain has made violations on the yearly catalog by changing typeface for the first time in 50 years.

“This summer, something terrible happened”, the petition said. “We, the undersigned designers, consider this to be a mutilation of Ikea's long admired design philosophy. It is sad this is happening, and it undermines Ikea's design leadership”.

For Ikea the outrage came as a surprise. On Monday more than 3,000 people had signed the formally request.

“We didn’t expect people to react this strong”, Ivana Hrdlickova, information manager at Ikea in Stockholm, told The Swedish Wire.

The change of looks of the hugely popular catalog, said to be the world's most printed book, was made to simplify and merge prints in different media and countries. Verdana is a commonly used font on the web and is accessible in all Ikea’s countries.

“It’s sad that some people react negative. Still, we are very glad that people care so much”, Ivana Hrdlickova said. “But what’s important is the message, not good looking fonts”.

Ikea, an unlisted family-owned company, has some 283 branches in 36 countries. It expects sales of 21.5 billion euros (30.1 billion dollars) excluding currency effects for its fiscal year ending August 31.