Oh man… it’s Comic Sans

“Oh man… it’s Comic Sans” – a phrase that constantly runs through my head numerous times a day as I go about my daily activities. I can’t escape it. Even now as I look around the room, my eyes unsuccessfully avoid the classroom rules, written in true Comic Sans style. How can we be expected to take anything written in Comic Sans seriously? Its name says it all. Thankfully, none of the professional posters around the room are as insulting to the art of typography.

Comic Sans was originally designed in 1994 by one of Microsoft’s in-house designers Vincent Connare, who noticed a niche in the market for a fun font “I also noticed that many people were inappropriately using drafting lettering in comic speech bubbles”, stated Connare. Now, if Comic Sans had stayed to fun things like Comic books, there wouldn’t be any problems; but somehow in the 11 years of existence the tables have turned and now Comic Sans is the font being used inappropriately.Comic Sans really must be the most controversial font of all time. Its use and abuse is so widespread that it has led to an online petition being created for the banning of Comic Sans. The petition gets hundreds of hits a week and acts nearly like a counsellor for people suffering Comic Sans overdoses as they each share their own story about why Comic Sans should be banned. “Comic Sans caused HIV & AIDS” claimed one signatory. I don’t think I would go as far as to say that however. The petition goes in partnership with website bancomicsans.com where users can send in photos of the widespread damage Comic Sans is blamed with.

But what’s wrong with it? Comic Sans isn’t all bad. It is an easy to read font, which can (dare I say it) sometimes look OK. What lets it down is its voice, if you will; which is soft, friendly and rounded, making it unsuitable for an alarming number of its uses. This is where the art of typography – or the art of listening to your fonts comes in. You need a font with a strong and commanding voice such as Arial Black for a “Do Not Enter” sign; not the friendly face of Comic Sans welcoming you in.

Thankfully, these days there are thousands of fonts available for our disposal, from places like fontfreak.com where you can browse and download most fonts for free. Even Microsoft have realised that Comic Sans has had its day and with the new version of Microsoft Office 12 (due to be released in 2007) they have included some fantastic new fonts which make a perfect replacement for both Comic Sans and Times New Roman in one go. They go by the name of Calibri and Cambria, so look out for them.

I understand that font selection is a matter of personal preference, and that sometimes the font may be appropriate in a few specific instances, but it seems that a complete ban of Comic Sans may be the only effective way of ending this pandemic.
Obviously this would cause a wave of looting and violence; so before it gets to that stage, next time you are designing a document, have a look through the range of available fonts before defaulting to Comic Sans.
Remember – Use is only 2 letters short of abuse.

NCEA English 3.1 Column Piece – Merit