Posts Tagged ‘typeface’
What's Wrong with Comic Sans?
Comic Sans is a type face you either love or hate.
It was created in 1994 by Microsoft in-house font designer Vincent Connare, who was appalled to see Times New Roman being used in cartoon speech bubbles. Turning to comic books for inspiration, he created Comic Sans. Although it was specifically designed for instructional software and programs aimed at children, it somehow got bundled into Windows 95 as one of the system fonts. From there, its popularity took off. And its popularity continues to grow so quickly, that it threatens to overtake Helvetica and Times New Roman by 2013.
This enrages Holly and Dave Combs, who started Ban Comic Sans, an international movement with this mission:
While we recognize the font may be appropriate in a few specific instances, our position is that the only effective means of ending this epidemic of abuse is to completely ban Comic Sans.
If you start to look, you’ll see Comic Sans everywhere. Love it or hate it, the main thing is to know enough about typography to understand why you should probably avoid it.
Type is a voice, and the type you choose is the tone of that voice. Ideally, it supports your message by being transparent, invisible. It’s the same with the best writing—the style serves the purpose and never draws attention to itself, never distracts the reader from the message.
Imagine a Danger: Do Not Enter sign. It’s probably in Arial Black, which would add authority. Appropriate, right? Imagine a legal document in Times New Roman—just the right amount of serious. Imagine a wedding invitation in a script—it’s elegant, formal, romantic. Now imagine any of these documents in Comic Sans. Ridiculous, right? And see what the American dollar bill looks like in Comic Sans. It’s just wrong.
Okay, comic sans does have appropriate uses, such as in comic book design, or in a sixth grader’s essay. It’s been used on Beanie Babies since the late 1990s. And that seems right. But does it belong on building signs? Or on information sheets for people with cancer? On legal documents?
Does it belong in business writing? No way. Its tone is childish, silly and friendly to the point of annoying. Definitely not professional. It says “Don’t take me seriously.”