Comic Sans as a font needs no defense.<p>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).<p>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].<p>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.<p>[1] <a href="http://i.imgur.com/C6QY1yp.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/C6QY1yp.jpg</a><p>(The Surrey Police strike again! <a href="http://i.imgur.com/Kn68ubk.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/Kn68ubk.jpg</a>)<p>(the compulsive designers in us will notice the logo at the top of that one is off-center, too)
Sad 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.<p>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.
One 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.<p>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.)<p>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.<p>Please consider branching out and using something else for your next document.
And here I thought it was just to piss off pretentious typography fascists and give self-righteous design snobs something to huff about.<p>Really, I've always been a defender of comic sans as appropriate where the intent is to be casual or personal.<p>One critical comment by a BBC article reader:<p>"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."<p>Exactly. Isn't that the point?<p>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.
Dude. Creative Writer <i>changed my life.</i> 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.
Simon 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.
Speaking of Comic Sans…here's a $100,000 rebranding for a town in Ontario - Port Hope.<p><a href="http://www.designedgecanada.com/news/2013/20130115688.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.designedgecanada.com/news/2013/20130115688.shtml</a><p>:P
"Design for hackers" also has an interesting section about comic sans that can be found here as a blog post:<p><a href="http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/" rel="nofollow">http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/</a><p>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")
> Because it's sometimes better than Times New Roman, that's why.<p>Isn't this why most things exist? Because sometimes they are better than other similar thing?
Shameless plug: Where Errol Morris discovers Comic Sans makes you disbelieve things. By a tiny amount.<p><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-people-hearken-o-earth/" rel="nofollow">http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-...</a>
Offtopic 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.
Regarding 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.
I'm shocked and awed that this magnificent internet battle has been waged for years and I never noticed it.<p>Is it too late for me to have an opinion on whether or not I hate Comic Sans?
> <i>There was no intention to include the font in other applications other than those designed for children when I designed Comic Sans.</i><p>End of discussion.
Teachers like to use Comic Sans because of the little 'a'. It's the same as the one you learn to write.<p>All the other fonts use the weird typewriter 'a.
Wait, let me first put my Comic Sans T-Shirt on...<p><a href="http://bit.ly/WVck0J" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/WVck0J</a><p>(Sorry, could not resist)<p>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.
It 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.
is 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.
Now 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.
Of 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.
Apple: Windows started it! (copying)<p>Microsoft: Apple started it!<p>Linux: Come here you two, no dessert for either of you tonight<p>(sorry, couldn't resist :P)