Defend the Indefensible: Comic Sans Serif

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The Colin Hunt of fonts.

If something's worth saying, don't say it in an "Oooh, aren't I wacky" way.

Grrrr.

Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:07 (eighteen years ago) link

IT'S FUNNY!!! "COMIC"!!!!

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:10 (eighteen years ago) link

People who use this font should be shipped off to some island somewhere, perhaps Custos Island.

Leon C. (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:10 (eighteen years ago) link

And write their papers in this annoying typeface, then let's see how "comic" it is.

Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:11 (eighteen years ago) link

"The comedian who knows no rule of law"?

Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:12 (eighteen years ago) link

The people who use Comic Sans also wear comedy ties and socks

beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I would like to pistolwhip everyone in corporations everywhere that actually uses this font in e-mail signatures.

David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:14 (eighteen years ago) link

The Colin Hunt of fonts.

*dies giggling* love it.

Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:15 (eighteen years ago) link

"But what would you call a font like that?"

k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I said to my adorable students this semester: "12 point, double spacing in any font that is not Comic Sans MS. It gives me a migraine and I mark more harshly when I have a migraine.".

edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:17 (eighteen years ago) link

People actually write their papers using comic sans serif?

Leon C. (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Ed: did anyone submit their work in Wingdings after that? =)

Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link

nobody will defend this. nobody.

g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:26 (eighteen years ago) link

I always read GARU G's posts as if they're in Comic Sans.

David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:27 (eighteen years ago) link

They haven't submitted yet. But last semester, about 20 of the 250 I had to mark were in it.

edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Tom E is a big fan but he's on holiday.

Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Plz tell me you meant submitted in wingdings omg xpost

Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link

No, Comic. I actually like it for some things - I'm using it in some web designing I'm doing at the moment because it fits the colour scheme and such. It's just not very good for a LOT of text.

edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I can't believe that. Wow.

I was about to come to this thread and say 'hey, Comic Sans has a [very limited] place, don't be the font fascists now'. But instead I am picturing the essays and crying.

Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:29 (eighteen years ago) link

The creator of comic sans defends himself.

Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Heh I'd be a terrible teacher cos I'd cry over all the essays for being shit grammar and suchlike.

Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:31 (eighteen years ago) link

well that'd good trayce if you're teaching english

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link

If it weren't grossly unprofessional, I'd scan one of them in.

edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link

oh wait haha i see what you've done there now

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link

http://base58.com/ilx/fac1comicsans.gif

Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link

the guy's explanation is really funny for all the implied abuse he's taken over the years

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link

lol actually I didnt mean to write a bad sentence on purpose! haha bad wine! *smak*

Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:39 (eighteen years ago) link

CSS reminds me of the sort of letters we had to copy when we were first taught to write at school, and I sort of like that. But not very much. Dunno about those weird cruciform lower-case 't's either.

NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:43 (eighteen years ago) link

if i ever bought a comic that used this font, i'd burn it.

g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes it's a good font for dyslexics. They tend to find all caps difficult to read too.

Zazas Zazas Nasatanada Katzenellenbogen by the Sea (noodle vague), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:48 (eighteen years ago) link

everyone finds all caps difficult to read. that's why it's rule #1 of the internet to never do it.

g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I dispute that a little (all caps tends to work better for navigation menus if they're graphical - though you may well argue that graphical naviagtion menus should be avoided anyway).

Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:52 (eighteen years ago) link

anything over two words is an eye-fucker.

g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:53 (eighteen years ago) link

i think it depends on the menu steve (e.g. i don't think it'd work too well with the MS Word menu bar if all the text were ALL CAPS)

ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Haha, The Dark Knight Returns is responsible for Comic Sans!

Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:56 (eighteen years ago) link

I was just thinking about websites Kendog.

Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Well if you mean that capitals are clearer than lowercase at smaller font sizes, then yes.

Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:15 (eighteen years ago) link

His brother is a world class bridge player, I think.

Draw Tipsy, ya hack. (dave225.3), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:18 (eighteen years ago) link

I was about to summon up some kind of defense just to be contrary but then I read that guy's story about why he created it. Indefensible!

walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000AG9W.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Though I'm not 100% sure of this one, it still works.

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:21 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fastshow/wallpaper/images/colin_640.jpg

Colin Hunt, Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Proof that you all hate fun. Er, wait.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link

note that it's mostly the middle-aged women in your office who use this font.

Comic Sans: Official Typeface Choice of Your Aunts

kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:05 (eighteen years ago) link

I read that as Anus.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:24 (eighteen years ago) link

No, that's the poster.

Leon C. (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:26 (eighteen years ago) link

My anus?

or your?

kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I shit better fonts than Comic Sans.

walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:31 (eighteen years ago) link

That Factory parody is incredible and is going straight onto my desktop at work!

There was an edition of Crearive Review last year where they got designers to use Comic Sans to reclaim it - they mostly failed.

Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:33 (eighteen years ago) link

This letter is so perfect. All caps, quotation mark hell AND comic sans serif.

ô_o (Nicole), Friday, 9 July 2010 20:17 (thirteen years ago) link

people are really feelin' it in akron/cleveland, though
yet another indignity for the people of NE OH: they respond positively to the use of comic sans :(

ghee hee hee (La Lechera), Friday, 9 July 2010 20:24 (thirteen years ago) link

six months pass...

Ugly fonts may aid comprehension

Alba, Sunday, 16 January 2011 13:03 (thirteen years ago) link

Oh man, this week at my work I came across an extensive history of our email correspondence with a prominent computer engineer, all of whose emails were in comic sans.

kkvgz, Sunday, 16 January 2011 15:59 (thirteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Thank God for Mississippi

Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:43 (thirteen years ago) link

at this point, i think it should be "Defend the Indefensible: Talking about Comic Sans"

odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:46 (thirteen years ago) link

The "wolf band" joke of typography dilettantes

odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:47 (thirteen years ago) link

agree with whiney tbh although we're both in the vortex of metasuck now

acoleuthic, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:53 (thirteen years ago) link

here, chris. I made this for u.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4791/wgas.jpg

Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 15:07 (thirteen years ago) link

lol

congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 15:14 (thirteen years ago) link

<3

odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 15:16 (thirteen years ago) link

one month passes...

chief exec of my organisation sent an email in comic sans the other day. guy earns > £100,00 p.a.

tending tropics (jim in glasgow), Sunday, 20 March 2011 00:04 (thirteen years ago) link

lol £100,000 even

tending tropics (jim in glasgow), Sunday, 20 March 2011 00:04 (thirteen years ago) link

OK, someone just told me about this:

Search "helvetica" in Google.

jaymc, Friday, 1 April 2011 14:34 (thirteen years ago) link

arrghh! It's everywhere!

Lee626, Friday, 1 April 2011 14:36 (thirteen years ago) link

he, he, helvetica

tangelo amour (elmo argonaut), Friday, 1 April 2011 14:37 (thirteen years ago) link

I'm bummed to learn the Google thing was just an April Fool's joke

Lee626, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 23:36 (thirteen years ago) link

i am studying an engineering degree. my college papers get handed out IN THIS FUX0RING FONT

also i called in sick this morning to slack on ilx all day.

jumpskins, Thursday, 7 April 2011 09:39 (thirteen years ago) link

it's kind of fun to say "comique sans" in an exaggerated accent. that is my one and only defense

bernard snowy, Thursday, 7 April 2011 10:18 (thirteen years ago) link

i am studying an engineering degree. my college papers get handed out IN THIS FUX0RING FONT

Ouch! This also makes me think of how many student hand in papers in Comic Sans (though there are some things I'm just better off not knowing).

EDB, Thursday, 7 April 2011 19:59 (thirteen years ago) link

nine months pass...

a couple wks ago i was watching one of those disturbing shows on discovery id. anyhow at one point they are showing a homicide detective standing in front of a filing cabinet and opening up a folder, and the folder says said "<something i can't remember> HOMICIDES 1997" or whatever. in comic sans.

the f...

dell (del), Monday, 9 January 2012 17:36 (twelve years ago) link

five months pass...

Can it possibly be used "ironically"?

Tom Crucifictorious (Leee), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 18:30 (eleven years ago) link

one year passes...

after just looking at a bunch of lol-memes I realized that few fonts are more effective at making something less funny than Impact

signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 18 December 2013 22:12 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

love it or leave it witchey warlock

Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Friday, 14 February 2014 21:54 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

http://comicneue.com/

polyphonic, Monday, 7 April 2014 18:17 (ten years ago) link

...not bad?

Doctor Casino, Monday, 7 April 2014 20:05 (ten years ago) link

I like the concept of taking something that is bad but popular and making it less bad. And I think he accomplishes that pretty well for the most part. Is there a way to improve Papyrus or other similarly awful fonts? Or is the essence of it too shitty to be salvaged?

I dunno, I guess this is the kind of dumb shit I like to think about.

polyphonic, Monday, 7 April 2014 20:50 (ten years ago) link

to me, comic neue is charles schulz lettering from 1956 and comic sans is charles schulz lettering from 1999

I made a grave mistake with my balloon at the end (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 April 2014 20:57 (ten years ago) link

hating comic sans is the liking bacon of boring type designers

Mordy , Monday, 7 April 2014 20:59 (ten years ago) link

I have no idea why people hate comic sans and papyrus. I've even heard people hate Arial! Don't know what you have to do to get to that point.

take a piece of mr. baxter's hand (how's life), Monday, 7 April 2014 21:46 (ten years ago) link

five months pass...

discovered this the other night at a friend's place.

http://s8.postimg.org/qhddaxfj9/new_makers_mark_bourbon_bottle_42_ABV_768x1024.png

Treeship, Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:06 (nine years ago) link

some say it is one of the better typefaces for people with dyslexia to read and understand

King Clone (Crabbits), Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:34 (nine years ago) link

ok mentioned before but ... people with dyslexia deserve to read labels based on u.s. regulation of spirit branding??

King Clone (Crabbits), Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:36 (nine years ago) link

Dyslexic.com weigns in: " Some dyslexic people find that Comic Sans is one of the more readable of the commonly-available Windows fonts, and we have used it on this web site in the past. Others find it too bold, too childish or too informal."

http://www.dyslexic.com/fonts

King Clone (Crabbits), Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:37 (nine years ago) link

Yesterday a company we've been dealing with at work sent its first official status report on a 12-week project they're doing for us. The headlines were in Comic Sans and the body was in a font similar to this:

http://schoolfonts.com/printnew/_ZWriting.gif

They're a fairly niche company, but are highly recognized within our industry as basically the only people who do what we need them to do. Still, we're going to have words with them about the fonts.

how's life, Tuesday, 23 September 2014 10:47 (nine years ago) link

one year passes...

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SF-qJ4dpP6s/hqdefault.jpg

Treeship, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 04:20 (seven years ago) link

I have no idea why people hate comic sans and papyrus.

My wife likes papyrus. I have informed her that some people hate it. She was also puzzled as to why this would be so.

I suspect that it is too often associated with people who think crystals are particularly good rocks for healing stuff that needs to be healed. And those who like to talk about angels as if they were the Good Witch from the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie.

a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Tuesday, 24 May 2016 05:08 (seven years ago) link

i think the hatred for these fonts has to do with how often they are used. they are kind of goofy and poorly designed to begin with and seem to be used whenever people want to add a bit of pizzazz to lame documents. they just connote laziness and dumbness.

comic sans has sort of taken on a life of its own though. it's so widely reviled that it's become a widely acknowledged visual shorthand for unseriousness, which is kind of a weird thing. typography used to be one of those elements of graphic design that average people didn't attend to very much.

https://andrewbusch.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/comic-sans-tombstone.jpg

Treeship, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 05:26 (seven years ago) link

http://comicsansproject.tumblr.com/

Treeship, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 05:35 (seven years ago) link

four months pass...

Still hatin'

http://i.imgur.com/gdJu9Yd.jpg

pplains, Saturday, 8 October 2016 02:51 (seven years ago) link

I dint think this thread revive could modify, nice job pp.

wishy washy hippy variety hour (Hunt3r), Saturday, 8 October 2016 04:28 (seven years ago) link

omg

qualx, Saturday, 8 October 2016 05:19 (seven years ago) link

what a fun night we're going to have bradley

qualx, Saturday, 8 October 2016 05:19 (seven years ago) link

me [m, 37] started dating a great/funny/smart girl [f, 33] but the font she uses on her smartphone is comic sans

johnny crunch, Saturday, 8 October 2016 14:03 (seven years ago) link

Sat here in Emergency, w Amber and her twisted ankle.

there is a similar sign to the just above. She remarked as we came in 'oo, It'll be proper A&E not children's'

I said that children's would probably be quicker.

anyway, I remembered the sign, we lagged.

ok, back to waaiting.

Mark G, Sunday, 9 October 2016 19:17 (seven years ago) link

five years pass...

i think i unironically like comic sans now, like i unironically like 'live laugh love' signs

Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Monday, 7 March 2022 22:36 (two years ago) link

As a teacher, I find comic sans fairly useful. I use it sparingly, but it comes in handy to make slides look more kid-friendly, or to suggest the idea of handwriting without actually using a handwriting font that kids can't read. Like, if I'm telling them to write something on a notecard, I might give them an example sentence in comic sans to emphasize this is the part that you write.

Lily Dale, Monday, 7 March 2022 22:50 (two years ago) link


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