I will confess to using the Comic Sans font without knowing about the controversy surrounding it.
The odds are that the first sentence of this post is displayed in the font “Comic Sans.” My confession should embarrass me, but doesn’t.
I first found out about the ill will directed at the font from James Lileks — who also dislikes Papyrus. That makes me sad, because I take Mr. Lileks’ opinion seriously but still like the font.
This morning, I came across a year-old article by Emily Steel in the Wall Street Journal on the Comic Sans controversy. Other than suggesting that the font was both overused and used inappropriately, no explanation was given for the heated revulsion.
The article included an origin story:
In 1994, Mr. Connare was working on a team at Microsfot creating software that consumers eventually would use on home PCs. His designer’s sensibilities were shocked, he says, when, one afternoon, he opened a test version of a program called Microsoft Bob for children and new computer users. The welcome screen showed a cartoon dog named Rober speaking in a text bubble. The message appeared in the ever-so-sedate Times New Roman font.
Mr. Connare says he pulled out the two comic books he had in his office, “The Dark Knight Returns” and “Watchmen,” and got to work, inspired by the lettering and using his mouse to draw on a monputer screen. Within a week, he had designed his legacy.
A product manager recognized the font’s appeal and included it as a standard typeface in the operating system for Microsoft Windows…
So there you have it: blame Comic Sans on Batman and The Comedian.
Mr. Connare, the creator of Comic Sans, has his own favorite: Magpie, a nicely legible serifed font.
Poking around, I found an interview of one of the people behind Ban Comic Sans that confirms the reasons suggested in the WSJ article:
MS: Why should comic sans be banned?
DC: In short, it’s just not safe for unregulated public use. It should be handled like controlled substances or firearms, and should be used only by licensed professionals in very specific settings. Since we can’t have it that way, I’m afraid it should be banned altogether. As an aside, I’ve actually used Comic Sans for web design appropriately in its intended context.
(MS stands for “Martin Skivington, the interviewer. DC stands for “Dave Combs.”)
We have fought beyond “ransom note” font abuse. We may never reach the point that everyone with a computer will rise above the design-awareness threshold that would allow them to aptly choose fonts.
If graphic designers want sympathy, they can turn to photographers — who suffer loss of income and pain inflicted by louts wielding digital cameras.
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