Banning Comic Sans Font

[ShinjisLover]

Spoiler:

Vincent Connare designed the ubiquitous, bubbly Comic Sans typeface, but he sympathizes with the world-wide movement to ban it.

Mr. Connare has looked on, alternately amused and mortified, as Comic Sans has spread from a software project at Microsoft Corp. 15 years ago to grade-school fliers and holiday newsletters, Disney ads and Beanie Baby tags, business emails, street signs, Bibles, porn sites, gravestones and hospital posters about bowel cancer.



The font, a casual script designed to look like comic-book lettering, is the bane of graphic designers, other aesthetes and Internet geeks. It is a punch line: "Comic Sans walks into a bar, bartender says, 'We don't serve your type.'" On social-messaging site Twitter, complaints about the font pop up every minute or two. An online comic strip shows a gang kicking and swearing at Mr. Connare.

The jolly typeface has spawned the Ban Comic Sans movement, nearly a decade old but stronger now than ever, thanks to the Web. The mission: "to eradicate this font" and the "evil of typographical ignorance."



"If you love it, you don't know much about typography," Mr. Connare says. But, he adds, "if you hate it, you really don't know much about typography, either, and you should get another hobby."


Typefaces convey meaning, typographers say. Helvetica is an industry standard, plain and reliable. Times New Roman is classic. Depending on your point of view, Comic Sans is fun, breezy, silly or vulgar and lazy. It can be "analogous to showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume," warns the Ban Comic Sans movement's manifesto. The font's original name was Comic Book, but Mr. Connare thought that didn't sound like a font name. He used Sans (short for sans-serif) because most of the lettering, except for the uppercase I, doesn't have serifs, the small features at the end of strokes.



Mr. Connare, 48 years old, now works at Dalton Maag, a typography studio in London, and finds his favorite creation -- a sophisticated typeface called Magpie -- eclipsed by Comic Sans. He cringes at the most improbable manifestations of his Frankenstein's monster font and rarely uses it himself, but he says he tries to be polite when he meets people excited to be in the presence of the creator. Googling himself, he once found a Black Sabbath band fan site that used Comic Sans. The site's creators even credited him. "You can't regulate bad taste," he says.



Still, he is tickled by -- and trades on -- his reputation. A picture signed by Mickey Mouse that was sent to Mr. Connare to thank him after Disney used the font in ads hangs in his house. His wife, Sue Rider, introduces him at parties as the father of Comic Sans. A friend of his claims to know someone who broke up with her boyfriend in a letter written in Comic Sans to soften the blow. But there certainly hasn't been much money in it for Mr. Connare since Microsoft owns the font.


Of course, there would be no movement to ban Comic Sans if it weren't so popular. "We've been using that font for years," says Peter Phyo, a manager at O'Neals' restaurant across the street from Lincoln Center in Manhattan. "That is just the procedure. I wouldn't know the exact reasoning. It also looks nice on the menu." Mr. Phyo says he hasn't had any complaints.



The proliferation of Comic Sans is something of a fluke. In 1994, Mr. Connare was working on a team at Microsoft 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 Rover 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 computer 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. As home computers became widespread, Comic Sans took on a goofy life of its own.

Out to crush that goofy life is Ban Comic Sans, whose weapons include disapproving stickers, to be slapped on inappropriate uses of the font wherever they are found.


Ban Comic Sans was conceived in the fall of 1999, when Holly Sliger was a senior at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, studying typography and graphic design. Designing a museum gallery guide for a children's hands-on artifact exhibit, Ms. Sliger says she was horrified when her bosses told her to use Comic Sans. She told them it was a cliché, and printed out a list of other typefaces she thought better suited the project. They insisted on Comic Sans.



"It was like hell for me," she says. "It was everywhere, like an epidemic."

In the midst of the project, she met her future husband, Dave Combs, at synagogue one Saturday. He was a recent college graduate working as a graphic designer, and she knew he would sympathize. "This is horrible," he remembers saying. She says, "That's when I knew he's the guy I would marry." The couple did wed a year later and continued to gripe about the font.


Mr. Connare says he first realized that the tide had turned against Comic Sans in January 2003, while studying for his master's degree in type design at the University of Reading in Berkshire, England. He got an email from Mr. Combs asking for permission to use his photo for stickers, T-shirts and coffee mugs to promote "typography awareness" for the movement to ban Comic Sans that he and his wife had founded. Busy and distracted, Mr. Connare said OK.

"It sounded a bit silly," he says. He didn't think it would amount to much.

But the Combses had global ambitions. A map hangs in their daughter's bedroom, marked with little red flags to show the dozens of locations around the world from which people have requested their stickers. "They're like parking tickets," Mr. Combs says. As the movement grew, Mr. Connare's image became the logo for Comic Sans bashing.



Mr. Connare eventually, in February 2004, asked the Combses to stop using his picture, and they did.



Today, Mr. Connare sometimes speaks at Internet conferences, using 41-page PowerPoint presentations written in you-know-what. He talks with the Combses about creating an "I Love/I Hate Comic Sans" picture book together.

The font has become so popular that it's approaching retro chic. Design shop Veer is selling a T-shirt with a picture of human heart on it made entirely of tiny Comic Sans characters. Veer's text: "Love it, love to hate it, or hate that you love it."

For the original article.

All I really have to say is: WTF, people? Ban the font? Love the font? Personally, I don't care about it, but posting it on Bibles is ridiculous.
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[Ŧøry vs. M£A†¥³]

If you want to ban the Comic San font, you will have to get through me first!

 

[Swift!]

Comic Sans used to be my favourite font, but I got over it.
Ban it or don't ban it, I couldn't care less.

 

[Azonic]

Personally, I hate that font. But the whole concept of banning it seems ridiculous. >_>

 

[Amaruuk]

Oh wow. Didn't expect to see a thread about something like this here.

As someone who's a good bit into getting her BFA in graphic design, I hear a lot about this sort of thing, and personally I agree that Comic Sans is a lame, overused, often wrongfully-applied typeface, and there are plenty of better fonts out there that convey the goofy or casual image without being cliche.

But banning it? That's pretty out there. I can't see there being enough people in the world's populus that are hardcore type-maniacs enough to get a typeface banned, even if it is one that is almost unanimously hated by graphic designers. Not everyone is a designer or cares about design, so I find it pretty pretentious for these people to want to ban a typeface because it's bad for graphic designers but doesn't really have nearly as much of an impact on anyone else.

 

[Melody]

What in the name of sanity!?! Comic Sans MS is an amazing font <3

Seriously. It's a wonderfully light hearted and READABLE font.

 

[Her]

I used to love Comic Sans, but I barely use it anymore. But actually banning the font? You're kidding me, right?

 

[Soul Eater]

What's the big deal? It's just a font. That's pretty stupid to want to go and ban it. You hardly ever know it's being used unless your someone who really pays attention to them.

I mean I never use it because I prefer tahoma but...still. It's a font and it's not causing any sort of danger to anyone so it's no reason to go and ban it for the hell of it. D:

 

[Nitrous Oxide]

Ugh, please do. It's a pain to read (ESPECIALLY ON FORUMS) and way too overused. The only time it's use is acceptable is in comics... oh hey, it's called COMIC Sans MS for a reason. I hate when people have to change their own font (ESPECIALLY ON FORUMS), and at least on messengers I can make all font default to one. I'm a graphics designer, and seeing someone pulling out a purple Comic Sans MS (or anything) on the beige theme I use hurts my eyes in every way possible. Comic Sans MS is just annoying, because it's typically the annoying people that use it. It's like how anything (anime, iPods, etc.) used to be good until every retarded brainchild started liking them, and then you find yourself not wanting to associate with those people anymore (Pokemon is the one exception in my life). And seeing as this font was based off my two favorite comic books, it kinda hits home for me when I see some 10 year old rambling on like an idiot on something they know nothing about using COMIC SANS MS. Argh.

 

[THIRTY-SIX]

"I Love/I Hate Comic Sans"

Hehe, good memories. xD

I don't hate it, but I can't say I like or love it. xD
Only thing I hate about it is when it does get overused with crappy colours. xD
That book might be an interesting read though. .o.

If PC were to remove it… I'd say get comic book typeface to replace it.

?I don't enjoy it because it looks too childish, but it serves it's purpose. xD

 

[Ivysaur]

My Design teacher told us that he'd delete our projects if we dared to used that font. My classmates were "Darn", I rejoiced XD

Seriously, for screen, best types are the Helvetica-Arial family (including Tahoma, Trebuchet, Calibri... just to mention some nice-looking ones), and for paper text the best are roman fonts (Times anybody?).

There is nothing sadder than reading the record for an official meeting written in Comic Sans, as I did some days ago.

I'm not a "don't like- BAN!" kind of person, but I think a proper typographical education would be fine.

Comic sans is for comics. Not for anything else.

 

[Zet]

how can they ban something if not everyone will remove it from their font folder?

 

[Taemin]

I really hate that font.. :/

I find it unattractive, and would be happy to see it completely gone from the internet/books/school papers, etc.. xD; but at the same time, there are people that like it, so I'm against banning it for that reason.

It's a font.. is it really important enough to be debated over like this? >>; It's a funny topic for a forum like this, but for actual companies to worry about it seems.. odd.

"But Mr. President, there's a war going on in--"

"Later. o< I have to deal with this Comic Sans issue!"

 

[Dukey]

Let's ban it, just because it's that terrible XD
But yeah, I hate it, it just looks so tacky and nooby.
Plus it'd be cool to have a font be banned.
Though I can't agree with 'Is the bane of graphic designers'. Any designer who used that font shouldn't be considered a designer :/

 

[♣Gawain♣]

That's plain stupid. Why waste banning it if the whole graphic artist world uses it? Comic San's a good font for comics and scripts or such, but banning it? Although it's not my favorite font(Monotype Corsiva's mine), I used it frequently, LIKE THIS!!!

Before they ban it, I like them to think it over.

 

[.Ozymandias]

I used to write everything in Comic Sans. I thought it was pretty and soft, but after a while (and reading any form of typed work I did then) it gives you a bit of a headache. I love it, but don't use it, so banning it wont really make much difference to me.

 

[Mitchman]

To ban it they will have to go over my dead body. I love the font(check my profile) and I think its great. Sure some people might hate it but its so soft and lovely. Hate me al you want this font will always be my favorite.

 

[Needle]

Noway! It shouldn't be banned that font is great. I love that font.

 

[Jimmyrobbo]

This site is boss in it lol

 

[deliriouspurple]

Why do they going to ban that font, it's one of my favorite font because it's soft and readable, so no.