Why I created Comic Sans
connare.com
Why I created Comic Sans
1–10 of 137 posts
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#2Sad 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.
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#3There is nothing wrong with Comic Sans, it's the overuse and inappropriate use that is the problem.
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#4> 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?
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#5On a side note, Comic Sans was used in the (possibly early) Samsung Galaxy phones for quite a while in their UI (Settings etc.)
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#6And 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.
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#7Comic 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
(The Surrey Police strike again! 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)
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#8One 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.
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#9Amusing: one (pidgin) interpretation of "Comic Sans" is "without humour."
Re: Why I created Comic Sans
#10Mad props for creating one of the most recognized and discussed fonts.