9 ms·
Comic Sans and its descendants are... indestructible. No matter how much some font designers complain about it, and how often they criticize it, Comic Sans kee
by cs702 6y ago
Comic Sans and its descendants are... indestructible. No matter how much some font designers complain about it, and how often they criticize it, Comic Sans keeps coming back, like the Terminator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans#Reception_and_use_in_popular_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans#Reception_and_use_i...
Among the most incongruous uses of Comic Sans I've seen, a few stand out:
* A plaque on a large statue of a historical figure in a public space: https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/region-metropolitana/2018/07/03/critican-monumento-a-pedro-aguirre-cerda-por-utilizacion-de-tipografia-comic-sans.shtml https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/region-metropol...
* A letter announcing the creation of new political party in Greece, breaking off with the then-current Prime Minister: https://web.archive.org/web/20151004131442/http://www.volosnow.gr/o-lafazanis-katethese-tin-apochorisi-tou-grammeni-se-comic-sans/ https://web.archive.org/web/20151004131442/http://www.volosn...
* A letter to the US Congress from the legal team defending the President against impeachment proceedings: https://www.fastcompany.com/90414127/trumps-old-lawyers-really-really-love-comic-sans https://www.fastcompany.com/90414127/trumps-old-lawyers-real...
Thankfully, in these examples the authors chose not to use a different color for each letter!
- nerdponx 6y agoI truly don't understand why. Are people just that sick of Times New Roman and Calibri? It's not like I especially hate Comic Sans, but it seems so wildly inappropriate for all of the uses mentioned above.
- coliveira 6y agoI really prefer CS to Calibri. Calibri is one of the ugliest fonts ever invented.
- vagrantJin 6y agoThis is true. Calibri takes effort to peruse. I confuse letters and words all the time and have to reread after losing context. Comic sans is certainly not the worst font out there.
- analog31 6y agoCS works quite well for reading sheet music from a distance in the dark.
- neolog 6y ago> so wildly inappropriate Comic Sans is a nice handwriting-style font. Isn't it just the name that makes people think it's inappropriate?
- rvense 6y agoFor a long time I thought it was called "Comic" because of the hilarious faces font snobs pull when you show it to them, but apparently it's because it was inspired by the text in comic books. I think it's sort of transcended all that, though. It's now the legendary Comic Sans from the land beyond taste, more meme than font.
- forgotmypw17 6y agoI think it is called that after Comic Chat, where it was featured.
- egypturnash 6y agoStraight from the horse's mouth: http://www.connare.com/whycomic.htm http://www.connare.com/whycomic.htm Originally designed for Microsoft Bob, missed that deadline, came out in the Win95 Plus Pack. The working name was "Comic Book". Probably because it is based on multiple comic books, primarily The Dark Knight Returns. I've also seen Watchmen mentioned in other interviews as a primary source for the shapes though he doesn't mention it in his page on the font.
- michaelcampbell 6y agoSo you're trying to convince us you legitimately though it was named, before anyone saw it, based on a presumed reaction people would have when they did? Pardon me, I think my bullshit meter just exploded.
- nerdponx 6y agoThat might just be my personal taste, then. But no, I think a fun handwriting-style font is inappropriate for all of the cases mentioned.
- mikehollinger 6y ago> inappropriate for all the uses mentioned above... I'll raise you. See Papyrus. [1] Who needs "'I'd rather be golfing' on a t-shirt in Papyrus, of all fonts? [1] https://www.instagram.com/papyrus_forever/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/papyrus_forever/?hl=en
- pell 6y agoYou probably have seen it but for anyone who hasn't, this SNL skit on Papyrus is brilliant: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ
- mikehollinger 6y agoHa. I actually hadn’t. Nice.
- tux 6y agoFont Fight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_tQRGq6clE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_tQRGq6clE
- danellis 6y agoI knew describing an SNL sketch as brilliant would turn out to be a wild exaggeration.
- mark-r 6y agoEnding it with the word "papyrus" in Comic Sans was the most brilliant part.
- michaelcampbell 6y agoI hadn't before now and am going with "yeah, brilliant". I don't think I've seen anything Ryan Gosling's done that I haven't liked him in; to the point of a bit of a man-crush.
- crtasm 6y agoDidn't find that funny but it reminded me to rewatch Font Conference which is great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3k5oY9AHHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3k5oY9AHHM
- shrimp_emoji 6y agoIsn't it weird that there's a and a?
- fbelzile 6y agoI can't find where I read this, but I thought Comic Sans makes text easier to read for people with dyslexia. A pretty narrow use-case, I agree, but there's at least one redeeming quality from something so ugly.
- sound1 6y agoi agree and i love the font. it looks like a proportional font but sure behaves like a mono. kudos!
- bryanrasmussen 6y agoapparently not as well as other some other fonts that are generally considered less ugly http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/sites/default/files/good_fonts_for_dyslexia_study.pdf http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/sites/default/files/good_fonts...
- snotrockets 6y agothis is not a conclusion of the study you linked to.
- bryanrasmussen 6y agohmm, you're right I got confused by the reference L. Evett and D. Brown. Text formats and web design for visually impaired and dyslexic readers-clear text for all. Interacting with Computers, 17:453–472, 2005. and took it to mean that they recommended Comic Sans for visually impaired readers with dyslexia as well, but it seems they don't have comic sans in the list of fonts they actually tested.
- snotrockets 6y agoThere's evidence of this: https://theestablishment.co/hating-comic-sans-is-ableist-bc4a4de87093/#.vukjzcz1b https://theestablishment.co/hating-comic-sans-is-ableist-bc4... There are fonts that were actually designed to be dyslexic-friendly, but they tend to be uglier; Comic Sans is a middle ground that doesn't slow non-dyslexics as much.
- aclimatt 6y agoA bit of satire lauding Comic Sans' indestructibility: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole
- dash2 6y agoObligatory Achewood reference (bring back Achewood btw): http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07052007 http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07052007
- juangacovas 6y agoYou can found it also in a tetrabrik soup brand from Spain: https://www.google.com/search?q=caldos+aneto&sxsrf=ALeKk02rtnOJ-yrJz44Pk5Ui-OWWfddcrQ:1608758818135&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj1-ojPheXtAhUeBGMBHUkVAw0Q_AUoAXoECBgQAw&biw=1886&bih=1429 https://www.google.com/search?q=caldos+aneto&sxsrf=ALeKk02rt...
- narag 6y agoThose broths are delicious. I had not noticed the font, maybe because they used ALL CAPS.
- Biganon 6y agoI've always been quite irritated by the amount of disdain toward Comic Sans. Partly because I feel like this is such an easy target, and people who have just learned 2 or 3 things about typography are very keen on bashing Comic Sans to show off their newly acquired knowledge. Partly because, let's face it, it's not that bad. What it does, it does well, it's pretty legible, no glyph stands out from the general harmony, etc. There's a reason it became massively used. It was included in windows because it was part of Microsoft Chat, which back then was heavily comic book styled, with speech bubbles for messages etc (something that has since then become a standard in IM). It appeared in the font drop-down list, and people picked it when they wanted their message to look a bit informal, not too severe. Of course, someone with design knowledge is able to achieve this without resorting to this specific font (or even a funny font), but most people lack this knowledge.
- foolfoolz 6y agoi made reading cards for my kids in comic sans because it’s one of the few fonts with the normal lower case a and g
- amake 6y agoThey’re clearly not “normal” if most fonts don’t have them (as default glyphs; many fonts have them as alternates).
- samcheng 6y agoBy "normal" he means the glyph we are taught to write by hand, which is also the glyph young children are taught to identify individual letters.
- userbinator 6y agoI personally write, and have seen many others use as well, the "two-storey" a and g, so I suspect there's regional variation.
- 6y ago
- kzrdude 6y agoI think it's meme'd too much. Using comic sans sometimes makes sense.
- banjomet 6y agoI think OpenBSD uses it on purpose in their slides so people won't take them seriously. Just a theory.
- gonzo 6y agoThey use Comic Sans on their slides. Now they can use Comic Mono on their xterm.
- brundolf 6y agoThat third one isn't too surprising
- sedatk 6y agoI think Comic Sans was also used in ESA's presentation of breakthrough black hole photos.
- ngokevin 6y ago* A hate letter from owner of Cleveland Cavaliers to Lebron James http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/09/comic.sans.cavs.james/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/07/09/comic.sans.cavs.james...
- aaronharnly 6y agoDon’t forget: the CERN presentation announcing the discovery of the Higgs Boson: https://blog.scottlogic.com/2012/07/05/the-higgs-boson-comic-sans-and-my-15-minutes-of-twitter-fame.html https://blog.scottlogic.com/2012/07/05/the-higgs-boson-comic...
- bonzini 6y agoAnd a plaque in front of a church in Seregno, Italy: https://reddit.com/r/italy/comments/2rawy3/seregno_mb_dove_il_comic_sans_%C3%A8_scolpito_nella/ https://reddit.com/r/italy/comments/2rawy3/seregno_mb_dove_i...
- pugworthy 6y agoSo maybe given it won't die and it's used a lot, maybe... just maybe... it's not as bad as some people think? The whole "font snob" attitude is pretty old and tired at least for me.
- michaelcampbell 6y agoOn LinkedIn I saw a Master's Degree diploma in Comic Sans shown by a recent graduate. As it happens the University is local and I have colleagues that graduated from there so I had to ask one about it. He confirmed that his at least is in the more typical gothic-y serif style font.
- blululu 6y agoAdd to this list of fun uses of comic sans, the Cleveland Cavelliers owner writing an angry open letter in response to LeBron James leaving for Miami.