UPDATE 3/10/13: A Word from the Creator of Comic Sans, Vincent Connare
The actual creator of the Comic Sans font, Vincent Connare, writes about the history of the font, and why it was created at Microsoft. Did you know that Comic Sans was developed specifically for the “Microsoft Bob” product but due to a mishap, it never made it into the product? It’s an interesting recap from the person closest to the font.
- Why Comic Sans?
http://www.connare.com/whycomic.htm
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ORIGINAL POST:
I had a conversation internally at at the company with… well… someone I’d never even met about the ongoing tussle about Comic Sans. Apparently, there is an entire segment of society that just HATES this font while there is another segment that absolutely adores it.
This is nothing new to most of you I’m certain. But what’s interesting is the lengths that people have gone to prove their pro/anti Comic Sans stance. Here’s just some of the items that were brought up in our discussion about the war for/against Comic Sans that I thought folks might find humorous to read through:
- The Original “Ban Comic Sans” web site
The ongoing crusaders to discourage the use of the font
http://bancomicsans.com/main/ - The Original “Comic Sans Project” web site
The folks that are humorously using the Comic Sans font in anything and everything.
http://comicsansproject.tumblr.com/ - POST: “I’m Comic Sans Asshole”
An NSFW humorous rant about why Comic Sans isn’t so bad.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole - BOINGBOING: The Big Reveal about the Errol Morris quiz
A ‘red herring’ quiz that was given to people about a completely unrelated topic that was actually a study about the use of fonts and it’s affect on people’s opinions.
http://boingboing.net/2012/08/09/errol-morris-quiz-about-kill.html - NEWS: ‘BBC: Making things hard to read ‘can boost learning’
A research study that suggests that actually using more difficult to read fonts that lack serifs (such as Comic Sans) can increase information retention.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666
“Researchers found that, on average, those given the harder-to-read fonts actually recalled 14% more.” - POST: The Font Conference
A College Humor skit featuring Comic Sans.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/3505939/font-conference - NEWS: Higgs boson and Comic Sans: the perfect fusion
The hilarious coverage of geeks worldwide dismayed at the use of Comic Sans during the presentation on the discovery of the Higgs Boson “God” particle.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jul/04/higgs-boson-comic-sans-twitter
kurtsh
