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I don’t think people really like it, they pick it because their choices are overwhelming, confusing and subtle. Comic Sans’ message is obvious, it’s easy to pi
by ugh 16y ago
I don’t think people really like it, they pick it because their choices are overwhelming, confusing and subtle.
Comic Sans’ message is obvious, it’s easy to pick out in the long list of fonts in Word and has a memorable name. It’s obviously and painfully friendly and playful.
How are normal people supposed to be able to tell that a font like Georgia is also much friendlier than the angular and rickety Times New Roman while at the same time being entirely appropriate for nearly every imaginable formal setting (unlike Comic Sans)?
Friendly fonts exists on everyones’ PC, it’s just that Word’s font picker doesn’t allow you to tell the difference at a glance unless it’s really obvious like in the case of Comic Sans.
Using fonts is hard, that’s why most people who are not used to doing it and have no experience with it pick extreme fonts with obvious differences.
- sp332 16y agoNope, my mom uses it for her coursework as she's working toward her master's degree. She really does like it, she says it's more readable. We've all tried to convince her otherwise, but as long as her advisor doesn't mind, she'll keep using it.
- ugh 16y agoI have no doubt that some people truly like it. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m wrong.
- alanfalcon 16y agoYou need to show your mother Comic Sans Criminal: http://www.comicsanscriminal.com/ http://www.comicsanscriminal.com/ The best part is that it's not just a rant, there are some free alternatives that meets her "more readable" criteria.
- dalore 16y agoIs there a website/app/service that will ask you what features you want of a font and it will show you recommendations?
- sudont 16y agoI haven't seen one, but it could be a fairly nice weekend project. Use a couple of hacks[1] to get the fonts, compare that with a list of font uses, and ask the user: What's the emotion to be conveyed? Where's it used? (Heading, wherever) Then, display the top font, and a visual list of choices. I suppose that one could also link to free OSS fonts as well, but that would likely have to be second-tier compared to using what's on the computer already. 1. http://www.lalit.org/lab/javascript-css-font-detect http://www.lalit.org/lab/javascript-css-font-detect
- grokcode 16y agoI would love to do this as a weekend project, although I don't have the first clue as to what fonts should be recommended based on what uses are intended. Anyone interested in collaborating? I'll do the backend and you develop the questions and font recommendations.
- sudont 16y agoPM'd you. I do front-end as well.
- alanfalcon 16y agoWell, there's an awesome flowchart: "So You Need a Typeface": http://julianhansen.com/index.php?/alternative-type-finder/ http://julianhansen.com/index.php?/alternative-type-finder/ The path to Comic Sans is appropriately humorous.
- burgerbrain 16y agoDamn, that flowchart is pretty much the posterchild of how not to make a flowchart. Unnecessarily overlapping elements everywhere. It's damn near impossible to follow and I'm supposed to trust their design knowledge?
- Sniffnoy 16y ago
- middlegeek 16y agoIs this parody or your real view?
- ugh 16y agoWhy should it be a parody? What’s wrong with the argument?
- lionhearted 16y ago> How are normal people supposed to be able to tell that a font like Georgia is also much friendlier than the angular and rickety Times New Roman while at the same time being entirely appropriate for nearly every imaginable formal setting (unlike Comic Sans)? True story: I call a designer friend of mine, and start to ask him, "I'm making a new website, and I was wondering what font would---" He interrupts -- "Georgia." Me: "I didn't tell you anything about the site yet." Him: "Doesn't matter. Choose Georgia. You win." I did. Later, a different designer friend of mine was emailing me, and writes in the PS, "By the way, I'm always thinking about beautiful the font on your site is, and then I realize it's Georgia. Ahhh, Georgia." I laughed. Georgia for the win.
- tjr 16y ago"By the way, I'm always thinking about beautiful the font on your site is, and then I realize it's Georgia. Ahhh, Georgia." Thinking about that old sweet font the whole day through?
- ThomPete 16y agoThe reason many designers choose Georgia is that is has character. But I would say it really depends on what you are doing. If you are trying to make something look futuristic or techy you probably shouldn't be doing Georgia but rather. Trebuchet, Arial or Tahoma. Also Georgia does not render equally nice in all browsers. So although I would tend to agree with them I would caution the Georgia for everything approach.
- kadavy 16y ago> a font like Georgia is also much friendlier than the angular and rickety Times New Roman while at the same time being entirely appropriate for nearly every imaginable formal setting You're echoing my thoughts nearly exactly. Georgia is unparalleled as a Serif web font. One interesting thought about Times New Roman is that - since it was designed for the London Times - it was originally designed to use less paper. Why should we suffer the consequences when space is no longer a consideration?
- dhimes 16y agoI was just looking at this last night and came upon a source for the whole "I hate Comic Sans" meme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11582548 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11582548 Interesting, the folks credited with getting it started[1] were really concerned about its inappropriate use, not that it was otherwise objectionable. [1]Holly and David Combs, who started the website bancomicsans.com