Category | Script (typefaces) |
---|---|
Designer(s) | Vincent Connare |
Foundry | Microsoft |
Date created | October 1994 |
Sample |
Comic Sans MS (also known by its most common name Comic Sans) is a sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation. It is a non-connecting script inspired by comic book lettering, intended for use in cartoon speech bubbles, as well as in other casual environments, such as informal documents and children's materials. [1]
The typeface has been supplied with Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, initially as a supplemental font in Microsoft Plus! Pack and later in Microsoft Comic Chat. Describing it, Microsoft has explained that "this casual but legible face has proved very popular with a wide variety of people." [2]
Its widespread use, often in situations for which it was not intended, has become the subject of criticism and mockery. [3]
Microsoft designer Vincent Connare began working on Comic Sans in 1994 after having already created other fonts for various applications. When he saw a beta version of Microsoft Bob that used Times New Roman in the word balloons of its cartoon characters, he believed the typeface gave the software an overly formal appearance. He believed this was inappropriate for the aesthetics of the program, which was created to introduce younger users to computers. In order to make Microsoft Bob look more suitable for its intended purposes, he decided to create a new typeface with only a mouse and cursor, based on the lettering style of comic books he had in his office, specifically The Dark Knight Returns (lettered by John Costanza) and Watchmen (lettered by Dave Gibbons). [4]
He completed Comic Sans too late for inclusion in Microsoft Bob, and the typeface would go unreleased until the programmers of Microsoft 3D Movie Maker, which also used cartoon guides and speech bubbles, adopted it. [5] The speech bubbles were eventually phased out and replaced by actual sound, but Comic Sans stayed for the program's pop-up windows and help sections. The typeface later shipped with the Windows 95 Plus! Pack, and was the primary font of the Travel desktop theme. It was later included as a system font for the OEM versions of Windows 95. Finally, it became one of the default fonts for Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Comic Sans is also used in Microsoft Comic Chat, which was released in 1996 with Internet Explorer 3.0.
Comic Sans is pre-installed in macOS and Windows Phone but not Android, iOS or Linux. [6] Comic Sans can be manually downloaded on iOS. [7]
Comic Sans Pro is an updated version of Comic Sans created by Terrance Weinzierl from Monotype Imaging. While retaining the original designs of the core characters, it expands the typeface by adding new italic variants, in addition to swashes, small capitals, extra ornaments and symbols including speech bubbles, onomatopoeia and dingbats, as well as text figures and other stylistic alternatives. [8] [9] [10] Originally appearing as part of Ascender 2010 Font Pack as Comic Sans 2010, it was first released on April Fools' Day, causing some to initially assume it was a joke. [11] [12] [13]
Comic Sans has become most infamous for its use in serious circumstances, such as warning signs and formal documents, in which it might appear too informal, unprofessional, or inappropriate. [3]
During the summer of 2010, NBA superstar LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency, in a highly publicized media affair that culminated in a TV special called The Decision . The majority owner of the team (at the time), Dan Gilbert, reacted by posting a letter to Cavalier fans. The letter was criticized for its use of Comic Sans. [15] [16] [17]
In October 2012, a Dutch World War II memorial called Verzoening ("Reconciliation") was revealed on which the names of Jewish, Allied and German military deaths alike were written alongside each other in Comic Sans. The names were eventually scraped off after complaints from Jewish organizations, but the rewritten message was once again in Comic Sans. According to the city government, this was done because the letters fit the shape of the stone and were easily visible from a distance. It was, however, criticized for making the memorial appear "ugly" and "cheap". [18] [19]
In September 2014, The Sydney Morning Herald printed a front page with Comic Sans, causing an uproar, despite its use being within speech bubbles in keeping with the origin of the typeface. [20]
In August 2015, a number of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's Syriza party members split and formed a new party, headed by Panagiotis Lafazanis. The official document of resignation was allegedly written in Comic Sans. [21]
In July 2018, a statue of former Chilean President Pedro Aguirre Cerda was inaugurated in Santiago. The plaques on the monument were written in Comic Sans, drawing negative attention on social media. [22]
In October 2019, when the United States House Intelligence Committee requested that two of Rudy Giuliani's associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruma, present documentation regarding their involvement in the Ukraine scandal, former Trump attorney John Dowd penned a letter of explanation printed in Comic Sans. [23]
That same month, as part of the United Kingdom's Brexit debate, the Conservative Party tweeted an image stating "MPs must come together and get Brexit done" using Comic Sans. [24] The post was heavily mocked, but some commentators saw it as a deliberate attempt to use the typeface's notoriety in order to bring their message to a wider audience. [25]
A research article published by Cognition in 2010 showed disfluency could lead to improved retention and classroom performance. The article stated that disfluency can be produced merely by adopting fonts that are slightly more difficult to read. [27] In the case studies cited in the article, Comic Sans was used to introduce disfluency. [28] A 2010 Princeton University study involving presenting students with text in a font slightly harder to read found that they consistently retained more information from material displayed in fonts perceived as ugly or disfluent (Monotype Corsiva, Haettenschweiler, and Comic Sans Italic) than in a simpler, more traditional typeface such as Helvetica. [27]
More often, however, Comic Sans is described as especially legible, and is frequently used in school settings or as an aid for people with dyslexia. [29] [ additional citation(s) needed ] Some people have reported that typing in Comic Sans has helped to clear writer's block, claiming that its casual appearance and high legibility create less mental tension. [30] Compared to other typefaces, Comic Sans has fewer rotated and mirror-image glyphs (ex. the letters "b", "d", "p", and "q"), has particularly wide letter spacing, and is sans serif [31] [29] [32] in general, although its capital "i" (I) has serifs to distinguish it from lowercase "l" (l). [33]
Several reinterpretations of Comic Sans have been created as a result of its popularity. In April 2014, font designer Craig Rozynski released a modernized version of Comic Sans called Comic Neue. In 2015, graphic designer Ben Harman created Comic Papyrus (later renamed "Comic Parchment" for legal reasons), which combines the features of Comic Sans with the similarly panned typeface Papyrus. [34] In 2019, Tabular Type Foundry released Comic Code, a monospaced version of the typeface. [35]
In 2017, it was reported that Vincent Connare, the typeface's designer, had only used it once. [36]
Because of its ubiquity and misuse, Comic Sans has received heavy disapproval from graphic and type designers. The Boston Phoenix reported on disgruntlement over the widespread use of the typeface, especially its incongruous use for writing on serious subjects, with the complaints urged on by a campaign started by two Indianapolis graphic designers, Dave and Holly Combs, via their website "Ban Comic Sans". [37] The movement was conceived in 1999 by the two designers after an employer insisted that one of them use Comic Sans in a children's museum exhibit. The website's main argument is that a typeface should match the tone of its text and that the humorous appearance of Comic Sans often contrasted with a serious message, such as a "do not enter" sign. [38] The movement ran until 2019, when Dave Combs believed the hatred had "gotten out of hand". [39]
Dave Gibbons, whose work was one of the inspirations for Comic Sans, condemned the typeface, stating that it was "a shame they couldn't have used just the original font, because [Comic Sans] is a real mess. I think it's a particularly ugly letter form." [40]
Film producer and The New York Times essayist Errol Morris wrote in an August 2012 posting, "The conscious awareness of Comic Sans promotes—at least among some people—contempt and summary dismissal." With the help of a professor, he conducted an online experiment and found that Comic Sans, in comparison with five other typefaces (Baskerville, Helvetica, Georgia, Trebuchet MS, and Computer Modern), makes readers slightly less likely to believe that a statement they are reading is true. [41]
In the Netherlands, radio DJs Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga decided to celebrate the typeface by having a Comic Sans day on the first Friday of July. Comic Sans Day has been held since 2009. Some Dutch companies have their website in Comic Sans on this day. [42]
According to a 2020 X poll held by TES, 44% of teachers sampled used Comic Sans in their teaching resources. Comic Sans is widely used in schools due to its high legibility.[ better source needed ] Other reasons include: [29]
I
and l
.[ better source needed ]Vincent Connare is reportedly not offended by the negative backlash over Comic Sans. At the Fourth Annual Boring Conference, he claimed to find the contempt for his work to be "mildly amusing." [43] He has stated that he is proud of his creation, offering different rationales. One of these was that "Comic Sans does what it was commissioned to do, it is loved by kids, mums, dads and many family members. So it did its job very well. It matched the brief!" He has also referred to it as "the best joke I've ever told." [44] In 2014, commenting on Comic Sans' critics and fans alike, Connare said, "If you love it, you don't know much about typography, [but] if you hate it, you really don't know much about typography either, and you should get another hobby." [45] [46]
Lauren Hudgins of The Establishment argued that people who use Comic Sans should be treated with respect, not mockery, because "people without dyslexia need empathy for those who need concessions to manage the disability." [47]
In the 2005 session of the youth model parliament in Ontario, Canada, the New Democratic Party included the clause, "Ban the font known as Comic Sans" in an omnibus ban bill. [48]
On May 22, 2012, The Comic Sans Song [49] was released by YouTube content creator and musician Gunnarolla, in collaboration with musician Andrew Huang. The song makes reference to Comic Sans and features commentary around the impact the font has had on pop-culture.
In July 2012, when the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced at CERN, Fabiola Gianotti, the spokesperson of the ATLAS experiment, attracted comment by using Comic Sans in her presentation of the results. [50] [51] [52] As a 2014 April Fools' Day joke, CERN claimed that it would be switching all its publications to Comic Sans. [53]
The Internet meme Doge, which became popular in late 2013, consists of different colored sets of words in broken English written in Comic Sans around the head of a Shiba Inu dog. [54]
In April 2014, OpenBSD announced the LibreSSL project in Comic Sans, claiming to be the first to "weaponize" it as a means for soliciting donations. [55] [56]
In the 2015 video game Undertale and its followup Deltarune , the character Sans is a comedian skeleton named after the typeface. His dialogue is displayed in lowercase Comic Sans. He is paired with his brother named Papyrus, in reference to the typeface of the same name. [57]
Verdana is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation, with hand-hinting done by Thomas Rickner, then at Monotype. Demand for such a typeface was recognized by Virginia Howlett of Microsoft's typography group and commissioned by Steve Ballmer. The name "Verdana" is derived from "verdant" (green) and "Ana".
Helvetica, also known by its original name Neue Haas Grotesk, is a widely-used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Matthew Carter is a British type designer. A 2005 New Yorker profile described him as 'the most widely read man in the world' by considering the amount of text set in his commonly used typefaces.
Frutiger is a series of typefaces named after its Swiss designer, Adrian Frutiger. Frutiger is a humanist sans-serif typeface, intended to be clear and highly legible at a distance or at small text sizes. A popular design worldwide, type designer Steve Matteson described its structure as "the best choice for legibility in pretty much any situation" at small text sizes, while Erik Spiekermann named it as "the best general typeface ever".
Core fonts for the Web was a project started by Microsoft in 1996 to create a standard pack of fonts for the World Wide Web. It included the proprietary fonts Andalé Mono, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and Webdings, all of them in TrueType font format packaged in executable files (".exe") for Microsoft Windows and in BinHexed Stuff-It archives (".sit.hqx") for Macintosh. These packages were published as freeware under a proprietary license imposing some restrictions on distribution.
Webdings is a TrueType dingbat typeface developed in 1997. It was initially distributed with Internet Explorer 4.0, then as part of Core fonts for the Web, and is included in all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 98. All of the pictographic Webding glyphs that were not unifiable with existing Unicode characters were added to the Unicode Standard when version 7.0 was released in June 2014.
Georgia is a serif typeface designed in 1993 by Matthew Carter and hinted by Thomas Rickner for Microsoft. It was intended as a serif typeface that would appear elegant but legible when printed small or on low-resolution screens. The typeface is inspired by Scotch Roman designs of the 19th century and was based on designs for a print typeface on which Carter was working when contacted by Microsoft; this would be released under the name Miller the following year. The typeface's name referred to a tabloid headline, "Alien heads found in Georgia."
Vincent Connare is an American type designer and former Microsoft employee. Among his creations are the fonts Comic Sans and Trebuchet MS, as well as the Man in Business Suit Levitating emoji. Besides text typefaces, he finalized and hinted the font Marlett which has been used for scalable User Interface icons in Microsoft Windows since 1995 and created portions of the font Webdings that was first shipped with Internet Explorer.
Trebuchet MS is a humanist sans-serif typeface that Vincent Connare designed for Microsoft Corporation in 1996, and it is also used as the font for the logo of Half-Life. Trebuchet MS was the font used for the window titles in the Windows XP default theme,
Curlz MT is an OTF display typeface designed by Carl Crossgrove and Steve Matteson in 1995 for Agfa Monotype. It is distinct from other popular typefaces, characterized by its wavy strokes and swirls at the beginning or end of letters. Similar to Comic Sans and Papyrus, the font has garnered criticism from graphic designers for being used excessively in inappropriate ways. Curlz was designed as a casual, decorative typeface.
DIN 1451 is a sans-serif typeface that is widely used for traffic, administrative and technical applications.
Papyrus is a typeface designed by Chris Costello, a graphic designer, illustrator, and web designer. Created in 1982 and released by Linotype, it has a number of distinctive characteristics, including rough edges, irregular curves, and high horizontal strokes in the capitals.
Web typography, like typography generally, is the design of pages – their layout and typeface choices. Unlike traditional print-based typography, pages intended for display on the World Wide Web have additional technical challenges and – given its ability to change the presentation dynamically – additional opportunities. Early web page designs were very simple due to technology limitations; modern designs use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript and other techniques to deliver the typographer's and the client's vision.
Ubuntu is an OpenType-based font family, designed to be a modern, humanist-style typeface by London-based type foundry Dalton Maag, with funding by Canonical Ltd. The font was under development for nearly nine months, with only a limited initial release through a beta program, until September 2010. It was then that it became the new default font of the Ubuntu operating system in Ubuntu 10.10. Its designers include Vincent Connare, creator of the Comic Sans and Trebuchet MS fonts.
Nokia Pure is a typeface designed by London-based type foundry Dalton Maag for Nokia. It was designed primarily for use in digital media, in Nokia devices, and mobile environments. It has been the company's main typeface since its introduction. Its designers include Vincent Connare, creator of the classic font Comic Sans.
Dalton Maag is an independent font foundry with offices in London, UK, and São Paulo, Brazil. It designs fonts for use in corporate identities, logos, and other text uses. Dalton Maag has a library of 30 retail fonts as of 2016 and offers custom font creation and modification services to its clients.
OpenDyslexic is a free typeface/font designed to mitigate some of the common reading errors caused by dyslexia. The typeface was created by Abbie Gonzalez, who released it through an open-source license. The design is based on DejaVu Sans, also an open-source font.
Comic Neue is a casual script typeface released in 2014. It was designed by Craig Rozynski with Hrant Papazian as a more modern, refined version of the ubiquitous, but often criticized typeface Comic Sans.
The Comic Sans typeface, one of Microsoft's most popular designs, has received a makeover courtesy of Monotype Imaging. Today the company has introduced the four-font Comic Sans Pro family of typefaces. Featuring elements such as speech bubbles and cartoon dingbats, Comic Sans Pro extends the versatility of the original Comic Sans, designed by Vincent Connare for Microsoft in 1994.
Comic Sans is recommended by the British Dyslexia Association and the Dyslexia Association of Ireland...People without dyslexia need empathy for those who need concessions to manage the disability.
Some of the characters also have different fonts in their text boxes, which highlights their different personalities. For example, two brothers named Sans and Papyrus use the comic sans and papyrus fonts in their text boxes, respectively.