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Not My Type: Why the Web Hates

Comic Sans

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BY CHRISTINE
ERICKSON

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OCT 0 3, 20 1 2

Hate it or not, Comic Sans is one of the most popular fonts in the world. It's on birthday
cards, comic books, restaurant menus, signs, branded merchandise and all over the web.
How did such a widely used font become so famously disliked?
US & WORLD

Comic Sans MS (a.k.a. Comic Sans) is a sans-serif casual script typeface. It was designed by
former Microsoft font designer Vincent Connare, who also created other notable fonts, such
as Trebuchet and some of the Wingdings. However, he is most well known for Comic Sans,
which was released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation.

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The font was based on lettering from comic books Connare had lying around his office,
specifically Watchmen (lettered by Dave Gibbons) and The Dark Knight Returns (lettered by
John Costanza).
Comic Sans classified as a casual, non-connecting script for informal use has been a
standard in the Microsoft font library since it was included in the Microsoft 95 package,
though Connare never intended it to be.
"Comic Sans was designed because when I was working at Microsoft, I received a beta
version of Microsoft Bob. It was a comic software package that had a dog called Rover at
the beginning and he had a balloon with messages using Times New Roman," explains
Connare on his website.
Comic Sans is the best joke I ever told. Comic Sans tait la meilleure blague que j'ai
jamais dit . #comicsans
Vincent Connare (@VincentConnare) February 8, 2010

The programmers of Microsoft 3D Movie Maker began to use Comic Sans for their cartoon
guides and speech bubbles, too. After Microsoft 95, it became a default for Microsoft
Publisher and Internet Explorer.

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Nearly two decades later, the childlike font is one of the most recognized scripts in the world.

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Why did people take so fondly to Comic Sans? Connare says it's simple: Because they like
it.
"Comic Sans isnt complicated, it isnt sophisticated, it isnt the same old text typeface like in
a newspaper. Its just fun and that's why people like it," Connare told Fonts.com.
Companies like TY, which makes Beanie Babies, are one of many companies that use Comic
Sans to represent their brand. EA Games designed The Sims and its entire umbrella of
games in the font.

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Apple introduced free electronic postcards in 2000 called iCards, and the default font was
Comic Sans. Apple created its own version of the Comic Sans script, called Chalkboard.

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Today, there are a multitude of fonts resembling Comic Sans, such as Captain Comic or
Cartoon Script.
SEE ALSO: This is What Fonts Would Sound Like if They Had Voices
There are also notable moments in Comic Sans history.
In 2010, basketball player LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. A
lot of people were not happy with James for leaving his hometown team, but the most upset
was Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who wrote a long epistle on the team website tearing into
James. The contents of the letter went viral, not just for the subject matter fans were
abuzz about Gilbert's choice of font: Comic Sans.
The Higgs Boson particle, discovered in 2011, quickly became a trending topic on Twitter.
The announcement was fueled because scientists at CERN revealed their findings in Comic
Sans. Designers were outraged and Twitter users found entertainment in the typography
choice. Even Taiwanese animators at NMA created a video recapping the mocked
announcement.
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RT @cern: <comicsans>we have observed a new boson with a mass of 125.3 0.6
GeV at 4.9 sigma significance.</comicsans>

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In 1999, the "Ban Comic Sans" movement was started by two Indianapolis graphic
designers, Dave and Holly Combs. An employer insisted that they use Comic Sans in a
children's museum exhibit.
The campaign was to point out amateur graphic design and the disregard for appropriate
typography in projects specifically ones with a formal, professional tone. It started as an
inside joke and a small website, but turned into the strongest anti-font movement currently in
existence.
How could something so seemingly simple as a font leave designers outraged?
While Comic Sans is perfectly adequate in designs for children or designs related to comic
books or cartoons, designers believe it has no place in business or professional work usage.
Its also ill-suited in content body text, which means its best used as a headline/heading or
short quote in other words, a comic book.
Though Dave and Holly Combs are still co-founders of the "Ban Comic Sans" movement,
they are focusing on a new, more positive campaign, Department of Public Words, which is
dedicated to creating positive messages in public spaces.

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Believe it or not, everyone doesn't hate Comic Sans. In fact, some are trying to defend it. The
YouTube project #22songs dedicated one of its songs to "the best font in the world." The
song, which is clearly supposed to be humorous, says that the font wouldn't be so bad if
used in moderation.
French designers Thomas Blanc and Florian Amoneau tried to re-imagine the font with their
Tumblr, the Comic Sans Project. The blog's purpose was to rebrand the world's most
recognizable logos in Comic Sans.
SEE ALSO: Comic Sans Project Seeks to Save the Webs Most Hated Font
It's obvious that the fight against Comic Sans is still unbalanced, but there are supporters in
favor of the font. Where do you stand in the Comic Sans debate? Is it really as awful as we
make it out to be, or just used inappropriately? Give us your take in the comments below.

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TOPICS: COMIC SANS, DEV & DESIGN, DID YOU KNOW, TECH, TYPOGRAPHY

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Mar 3, 2013

David Kadavy

I actually do think Comic Sans is a bad font at least in the context in which it is usually used. It
was originally designed to be used on aliased screens, and Connare never expected it to be
printed out on flyers and such. More than anything, it's just misused. Still, it's rife with poor
typographic fundamentals, as outlined here: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hatecomic-sans/

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