Comic Sans, Font of Ill Will

Kelson writes "The Wall Street Journal profiles Vincent Connare, designer of the web's most-hated font, Comic Sans. Not surprisingly, the font's origins go back to Microsoft Bob, where he saw a talking dog speaking in Times New Roman. Connare pulled out Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns for reference, and created the comic book-style font over the next week. 'Mr. Connare has looked on, alternately amused and mortified, as Comic Sans has spread from a software project at Microsoft Corp. 15 years ago to grade-school fliers and holiday newsletters, Disney ads and Beanie Baby tags, business emails, street signs, Bibles, porn sites, gravestones and hospital posters about bowel cancer. ... The jolly typeface has spawned the Ban Comic Sans movement, nearly a decade old but stronger now than ever, thanks to the Web."

Comments

Similar to Windows hate?

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Comic Sans itself isn't a bad font. It is easily readable, and more than anything else, that is the best measure of a font.

Just because it is so popular people hate it. It's like people hating on pop stars, Windows, and Kraft Parmesan cheese.

Popular doesn't mean bad. On the contrary, it means it fits the needs of many people.

Re:Similar to Windows hate?

[omnichad]

It's not a bad font, but people use it in completely wrong contexts.

If it stuck to speech balloons and the occasional kids' item, nobody would be against it.

The reason to hate it is that it's the Universal "Specialty" font. If you don't want a serif font, or a plain font like Arial, the first tool of choice is Comic Sans.

It's like when people use ketchup to make spaghetti sauce. It sort of works, but it's just wrong.

Re:Similar to Windows hate?

[drDugan]

actually meeting ones need is very different than being the best choice in a poor
set of proffered options. equating popularity with applicability is a weak link
at best in the real world, or simply a naive troll attempt.

typically things are "popular" because they are promoted heavily, people are
creatures of habit, and most are highly susceptible to marketing methods

Regarding your opinion, I disagree: Comic Sans is a bad font. Typeface designers,
graphic designers, and most people with good taste and a trained eye for design
all agree (go talk to a bunch of RISD graduates or typeface designers). In this
case CS was not marketed - it has just been chosen often by untrained people who
don't really understand the effect of their choice.

As for your other examples, they are bad too: unskilled music, unhealthy food, and
insecure operating system combined with predatory monopolistic business practices
resulting in lack of choice. Everyone has an opinion, perhaps we'll just disagree.

Re:Similar to Windows hate?

[rackserverdeals]

The reason to hate it is that it's the Universal "Specialty" font. If you don't want a serif font, or a plain font like Arial, the first tool of choice is Comic Sans.

That's because it's the only web safe font that comes close to looking like hand writing.

There are very limited choices when it comes to choosing fonts for the web. You can't blame comic sans, but more the lack of choice.

Re:Similar to Windows hate?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

If that's the main complaint, the problem is that most comics are all caps that I've seen. The Far Side is the lone exception that I've found in my collection, and on my city's newspaper, The Family Circus plus a more obscure Ballard Street are the exceptions, everything else is all caps.

Not only that, the name of the font tells us it's a comic typeface. The designer should know what they're doing if they stray too far out of the stated intent of a design element, and as such, the problem is most likely a misuse of the typeface, and not the actual typeface itself.

Re:Similar to Windows hate?

[johny42]

[citation needed]

Re:Similar to Windows hate?

[troll8901]

... unlike the hate for Comic Sans.

And Vegemite too. This strong-tasting food paste is good for plain porridge only and nothing else. When a tiny teaspoonful is added, the porridge is absolutely delicious. When misused on other foods (especially bread), it is torture.

I think Comic Sans is a brilliantly designed but greatly misused and misunderstood product. I sympathize with the creator.

If there's an easier way of obtaining more fonts via the Internet, and including them in the documents distributed, users will be happy to try other fonts.

Re:Similar to Windows hate?

[Seraphim_72]

It is anti-religion so it must be true.

All you have to do is look at LEDs to see why caps were used. I have an ancient Control Data Calculator that can easily show you why caps are used.

I will go one step further and tell you your post makes you look like a bigot. Every quirk in the world is not the fault of religion, get over it already.

Re:Similar to Windows hate? NOPE

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not related to be easy to read or not, or because it is widely used or not.

I just hate when someone delivers a report written in comic sans ms OR even WORSE, submits a paper written in that font.

It's like going to a job interview with sandals and bathsuit.

Re:Font-Snob

[blitzkrieg3]

New phrase: "font-snob"

Call them what you will, but industrial design and attention to detail is often grossly overlooked. It's why Mac is converting hordes of longtime PC users and why Ubuntu is the most popular linux distro. It's why Adobe is a multi-billion dollar company and why black Myriad text on a white background is instantly recognizable as an Apple ad. It's why I can no longer look at non anti-aliased fonts outside the terminal.

As a user who upgraded to Fedora 7 from Fedora Core 6 after the Liberation fonts switchover, I can say that the impact must be experienced to be believed.

Re:Font-Snob

[StreetStealth]

Design is a lot like software development in this respect.

If something is poorly designed, and you aren't a designer, you may not notice it at first, just as if something is poorly coded and you're not a developer, you may not immediately sense just how unoptimized the software is.

But as you use it more, the deficiencies manifest themselves in your own frustration. Poor design makes things hard to follow and taxing to use, just as poor software development makes things sluggish and unstable. The work of a skilled designer will always be more enjoyable to use over time, just as the work of a skilled developer shows through in a solid and stable product.

I may be a font snob, but I'm also a stability snob, a performance snob, a usability snob, and a number of other snobberies.

Comic Sans has a unique place-Informal Sans

[Nom du Keyboard]

Comic Sans font fills a unique slot that no other widely available (read: free) font provides. It allows an informal alternative to the other too formal and stuffy fonts for purposes that don't want to be all officious.

I feel that it's biggest drawback is it's name. (If you don't think a name can hurt you, try to tell someone to use GIMP, or even worse, Qtpfsgui.) If Comic Sans had been called Informal Sans I believe that there would be much less angst over it.