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Why I created Comic Sans
- peterkelly 14y agoWhat I really want to see is an article on "Why I created Microsoft Bob"
- awakeasleep 14y agoSad that Mr. Connare feels the need to defend the creation of one of the most popular typefaces of all time. I can't help but feel like some point has been missed. When I think about all the serious thought and energy that went into the fonts available to us, and the ratio by which the average person chooses comic sans or papyrus after scrolling through their long, user-hostile list of typefaces, I feel like a market is underserved.
- HunterV 14y agoThere is nothing wrong with Comic Sans, it's the overuse and inappropriate use that is the problem.
- pavel_lishin 14y agoJust like guns and sugar.
- HunterV 14y agoand just about anything else.
- IgorPartola 14y ago> Because it's sometimes better than Times New Roman, that's why. Isn't this why most things exist? Because sometimes they are better than other similar thing?
- signed0 14y agoThat fails to account for things which everything else is always better, such as Windows ME.
- neya 14y agoOn a side note, Comic Sans was used in the (possibly early) Samsung Galaxy phones for quite a while in their UI (Settings etc.)
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoA UI that were terrible and that the Samsung management spent ages comparing to the iPhone UI and pointing out how terrible it was.
- aneth4 14y agoAnd here I thought it was just to piss off pretentious typography fascists and give self-righteous design snobs something to huff about. Really, I've always been a defender of comic sans as appropriate where the intent is to be casual or personal. One critical comment by a BBC article reader: "The main problem I have with Comic Sans is that it makes everything written in it look like a parish newsletter pinned to a noticeboard outside the local church." Exactly. Isn't that the point? Criticizing this font is like criticizing a 5 year old child's handwriting on a birthday card, and asking why he didn't have professionally calligraphy.
- larrydavid 14y agoI don't think even the most pretentious of designers would ever scoff at the use of Comic Sans where it was appropriate and fitting, such as on the invitation to a 6 year old's birthday party. That's where is fits, it exudes 'fun'. Where 'pretentious' designers do begin to huff is when it is used in a clearly inappropriately context such as on police notices raising awareness of rape. The handwriting example isn't particularly good because learning calligraphy is a skill that I assume takes a decent amount of time to reach proficiency in. Making a couple of extra clicks in a word processor and selecting something like Arial is not. http://inappropriatecomicsans.tumblr.com/day/2012/03/17 http://inappropriatecomicsans.tumblr.com/day/2012/03/17
- aneth4 14y agoAs mentioned in the original link, Times New Roman and every font has inappropriate and appropriate uses, though that in itself is an absolute judgement we can probably do without. Those inappropriate uses involving Comic Sans may be more funny, but other than that, it's hard to argue pretentious designers have not had a bit too much fun bagging on Comic Sans simply out of schadenfreude.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- randomchars 14y ago
- simonsarris 14y agoComic Sans as a font needs no defense. Just like a good band with bad fans, we don't balk at Comic Sans, we balk at the people who use comic sans for inappropriate things. (Or to use a more computery analogy, there's nothing wrong with capital letters or all-caps, but some users use them inappropriately). City memo minutes should not be distributed in Comic Sans. Wedding invitations should probably not be in Comic Sans. The Surrey police should not have released a memo on rape and sexual assault in Comic Sans[1]. There are times when you do not want to be unserious and insincere, and some people are, and its embarrassing. Comic Sans is just a vector for that, but if you find fault with it, its still the people who are at fault. [1] http://i.imgur.com/C6QY1yp.jpg http://i.imgur.com/C6QY1yp.jpg (The Surrey Police strike again! http://i.imgur.com/Kn68ubk.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Kn68ubk.jpg) (the compulsive designers in us will notice the logo at the top of that one is off-center, too)
- NoPiece 14y agoThere is definitely an internet lynch mob mentality on this even though the inappropriate use critique is spot on. You'd have to be a brave designer to use it, even in an befitting way. Apps like Balsamiq have dropped it and subbed in look-a-likes just so people have cover to say it isn't Comic Sans. http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/font http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/font
- wfunction 14y agoMy professors used it on many lecture slides... very few people until it was pointed out to them, and once that happened then they couldn't focus!
- TheAnimus 14y agoIt's a bit of a craze to mock things, we like to be pack animals feasting on the fresh carcus afterall. Just search Nickleback on Reddit. However it's bizzarely useful in a way. Say you've got a trail version of an application, you can have a penalty of users who run the app for more than a month without a purchase. Simply flick the font in to Comic Sans. You gain geek credit, even some free blog advertising under the Comic Sans lol bandwagon. That then creates more posative feedback, people like to read things they are already vaugely familiar with, so you get that natural circle of hate.
- tikhonj 14y agoOne of the reasons people don't like Comic Sans is because it was overused, largely thanks to being included with a bunch of default Microsoft tools. It was also use in the wrong contexts. Amusingly, I think the same holds true of the typeface that sparked the whole thing: Time New Roman. Far too many people use it for far too much, sometimes in the wrong context. So maybe we should all use Times less too! (I tend to use Palatino or Garamond myself.) I'm tired of seeing the same few fonts everywhere. For whatever reason Times and Comic Sans really stand out, but this really holds for all the "web-safe" fonts--which also happen to be the fonts everyone used to flock to in Microsoft Word. Please consider branching out and using something else for your next document.
- ameen 14y agoMicrosoft did partly address that by making Cambria and Calibri its default header and body fonts. But really, basic knowledge about Typography would help a great deal in creating decent looking content. A Serif title with Sans body-text for the web makes content easier to read, and the inverse is true for print.
- Surio 14y ago>> Cambria and Calibri its default header and body fonts. >> A Serif title with Sans body-text for the web makes content easier to read, and the inverse is true for print. You are very correct. So, in a way, Microsoft got it all mixed up in the font selection thing mentioned above, no?
- hdra 14y agoCambia is a serif, while Calibiri is a sans. How is it mixed up?
- Surio 14y agoA Serif title with Sans body-text for the web the inverse is true for print. i.e., Sans for header and Serif for body for print documents. Now, re-read this: Microsoft did partly address that by making Cambria and Calibri its default header and body fonts (for Word) Did they get it mixed up? I think so.
- troymc 14y agoAmusing: one (pidgin) interpretation of "Comic Sans" is "without humour."
- mdesq 14y agoMad props for creating one of the most recognized and discussed fonts.
- smackmybishop 14y agohttp://achewood.com/index.php?date=07052007 http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07052007
- kristofferR 14y agoComic Sans is the Justin Bieber of fonts - hated by a lot, yet incredibly popular.
- obstacle1 14y agoSimon Garfield wrote a great book called "Just My Type"[1] which dives deep into the history of landmark fonts. Includes a full chapter on Comic Sans, highly recommended read.
- eru 14y agoYou forgot your footnote.
- nivla 14y agoYup obstacle did forget his footnote which I was also interested in. Making a guess that it is going to be a link to Amazon, let me steal that chance: http://www.amazon.com/Just-My-Type-About-Fonts/dp/1592407463/ http://www.amazon.com/Just-My-Type-About-Fonts/dp/1592407463...
- obstacle1 14y agoSorry! I messed up, I did mean to post an amazon link. Thanks for picking up where I'm slacking.
- brogramming 14y agoBahahaha comic sans sucks.
- justjimmy 14y agoSpeaking of Comic Sans…here's a $100,000 rebranding for a town in Ontario - Port Hope. http://www.designedgecanada.com/news/2013/20130115688.shtml http://www.designedgecanada.com/news/2013/20130115688.shtml :P
- setheron 14y agoyay Canad! I'm from Toronto and went to US :) Live in Seattle and work at Amazon... Missing my poutine...
- drucken 14y agoCanada has some interesting towns. I wonder if a Comic Sans rebranding would do anything for "Swastika, Ontario" - the sort of naming equivalent for radioactivity - for example! :)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- webwielder 14y agoWhither Comic Serif?
- threedaymonk 14y agoIt exists! (And it's not bad, either.) http://www.dafont.com/hvd-comic-serif.font http://www.dafont.com/hvd-comic-serif.font
- rikacomet 14y agoApple: Windows started it! (copying) Microsoft: Apple started it! Linux: Come here you two, no dessert for either of you tonight (sorry, couldn't resist :P)
- Apocryphon 14y agoWhat would BSD say?
- stingrae 14y agoWhen I was your age...
- egonschiele 14y agoOf course this blog has poor typography: small font size with no attention paid to margins or readability. You may design typefaces, but you sir are no type designer.
- vor_ 14y agoAccording to the copyright at the bottom, the page was written 10 years ago, when most screens used smaller resolutions.
- Metapony 14y agoThe funniest use of I ever saw was in the Fraternal Order of Police's Maricopa county lodge webpage. They listed all of the other previous Sheriffs in Times Roman, but when at the bottom of the list they had got to Arpaio's name, it was hilariously listed in Comic Sans. (It's no secret he's hated by the people who work for him!)
- doctorpangloss 14y agoShameless plug: Where Errol Morris discovers Comic Sans makes you disbelieve things. By a tiny amount. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-people-hearken-o-earth/ http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-...
- beatpanda 14y agoDude. Creative Writer changed my life. I had forgotten about it until I read this article. I was experimenting with long-form fiction writing and screenplays at like 7 or 8 years old thanks largely to that program.
- rayhano 14y agoPutting backgrounds on my English essays in school, with Creative Writer, got me extra marks. Back then, different fonts weren't used at all. Now, we have more fonts than we can shake a stick at, but still no easy way for lay people to access new/different fonts. System fonts rule on for a while longer.
- girvo 14y agoSame here, although Fine Artist was just important to me. Did all my homework in them when I just started primary school. Everyone else handwrote theirs :)
- mkopinsky 14y agoOfftopic semi-ignorant question: As a non-designer, can someone explain to me why I'd ever need more than a single serif font, a single sans-serif font, a single monospace font (and ok, a single "fun" font)? Why should I care about the differences between Times New Roman and Garamond, or between Arial and Verdana? Even when I look closely I struggle to see the differences within categories, so I find it hard to believe that my document or logo or whatever will be perceived differently by a reader because it uses the wrong font within the correct category.
- tommikaikkonen 14y agoYou can't not communicate with a typeface - they always have a certain feel, which is why there's a whole lot of them. Typefaces also have characteristics that make them more suitable for certain situations. For example, Georgia is designed for the screen with a tall x-height but Garamond looks better in print with its small x-height. Then there's condensed fonts, small caps.. It's certainly hard for a non-designer to catch all the visual differences but I believe they are sensed subconsciously by all.
- ghaff 14y agoI agree with everything you say. That said, it's also true that there are an awful lot of fonts out there but a relatively small number are used for most day to day screen and print use. I know that when I have a project such as a book, I tend to end up spending a bunch of time fussing around--and, at the end of the day, I usually go back to some variant of the standby fonts I routinely use.
- jmodp 14y agoComic sans has a place as a font which may be easier for dyslexic students to read.
- BenjaminCoe 14y agohttp://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole
- rmrfrmrf 14y agoThat image at the bottom says it's Comic Sans, but it's Chalkboard.
- bnegreve 14y agoOnly the last line is Comic Sans, that's the point.
- d00r 14y agoOne of the things that will be harder to justify is the use of raw white text on raw black background.
- Tekker 14y agoWhy is the uppercase D so droopy? That's the one character I hate in the font.
- Argorak 14y ago"Design for hackers" also has an interesting section about comic sans that can be found here as a blog post: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/ http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/ Especially interesting is the discussion that comic sans is actually a good font when it comes to aliasing. ("Comic Sans isn’t Used as Intended")
- Tekker 14y agoRegarding Comic Sans misuse, I suspect many people are looking for a "handwritten" font, of which Comic Sans is often the first similar sort of thing, and people gravitate to it.
- _pferreir_ 14y agoWait, let me first put my Comic Sans T-Shirt on... http://bit.ly/WVck0J http://bit.ly/WVck0J (Sorry, could not resist) Anyway, happy to see that even the font's creator agrees that it shouldn't be used for anything more serious than educational software and birthday invitations.
- crusso 14y agoI'm shocked and awed that this magnificent internet battle has been waged for years and I never noticed it. Is it too late for me to have an opinion on whether or not I hate Comic Sans?
- tripzilch 14y agoIt's never quite too late, but you might want to really rage about it, to make up for all the lost time.
- dbbolton 14y agoIt kind of surprises me that a photographer and typeface designer would choose #ffffff text on a #000000 background, something that the average person can only stand to look at for a few seconds before needing to rest his or her eyes.
- plg 14y agoDesign of the OP's web page. That is all.
- raarky 14y agoTeachers like to use Comic Sans because of the little 'a'. It's the same as the one you learn to write. All the other fonts use the weird typewriter 'a.
- ward 14y agoThis argument doesn't fly when you are only taught to write in cursive, as is the case everywhere here in Belgium (and surrounding countries?), as far as I am aware. It still got overused here as well. I remember one teacher in highschool claiming Comic Sans was better (more readable) for people with dyslexia. I never checked that out, but I don't attribute much truth to it.
- tyang 14y agoComic Sans: Because some of us run lemonade stands.
- moron4hire 14y agoI have so much more important things to worry about than the withertos and whyfors of fonts.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- bobwaycott 14y ago> There was no intention to include the font in other applications other than those designed for children when I designed Comic Sans. End of discussion.
- spoiler 14y agois it weird how I could tell the difference between the apple imitation and the Microsoft's original version (noticed it right after I read the "If")? In all honesty, I think that the apple version has a little bit more balance and neatness to it, but I have nothing against comic sans. I guess I qualify as a mediocre, amateur designer, since I dabble with design often out of fun, even earned money from it a few times, but I am not sure if my naive opinion counts.
- JDGM 14y agoNow I've read that article I can clearly hear myself saying "Comic Sans is the typeface of a talking dog" countless times over the next rest of my life.
- orochi235 14y agoWhy am I not surprised that his grammar sucks?