![]() StrokesĬomic Sans’ strokes are imperfect to give it that handwritten appearance. Ascenders are also extremely close to the x-height however which adds to further confusion in the typeface’s readability. ![]() The ascenders are above the cap height which strengthens the differentiation from the capital letters and the lowercase letterforms. This creates a distinction that viewers can easily discern and understand. In a font like Georgia, the o is a circular letterform while the a is a double decker (Roman) version of the a letterform. This causes multiple issues as some letter forms begin to not look quite as distinct and thus slow reading. The counters in Comic Sans are large especially in comparison to the stroke of the actual letterform. The difference between the two heights however appears to be less than other fonts and thus decreases readability. The x-height of Comic Sans is considerably higher than that of most other fonts with a cap height that is also large. The popularity of the design and its various imperfections showed that there was an area of type design on computers that could be explored. While the font may be panned by many, its influence can be felt across many of the handwritten typefaces. It has been argued that this reduction in reading speed can lead to higher retention of information. Some people claim that the typeface is good for dyslexics and causes people to slow down their reading speed. It became ubiquitous with poor font choices within a few years. Once released, Comic Sans was at the disposal of anyone with a computer. The typeface was then later released in the Windows 95 Plus pack, an expansion on the Windows 95 operating system. However, in 1995 it was included for the help sections of Windows 3D Movie Maker developed by Microsoft Kids. ![]() When Vincent Connare went to create a replacement as Times New Roman was too formal, the font wasn’t ready in time and thus wasn’t included. Microsoft Bob was a program designed to improve user interface and initially was developed with Times New Roman. One thing that we have to keep in mind when discussing Comic Sans is the context and then the cultural explosion that has changed the ideas behind Comic Sans after the fact. Connare had previously developed fonts for applications with children users in the early 90s. Taking inspiration from comics, the font was designed to be used in informal documents and child education. The casual script choice for everyone … perfect as a display face, for marking up comments, and writing passive aggressive office memos.Comic Sans was developed by Vincent Connare and is categorized as a “casual” script typeface featuring non-connecting letters. The quirkiness of Comic Sans is gone, but what does that actually leave us with? Comic Neue, according to its website, is meant as: Comic Neue also seems more legible, mainly because of bigger “counters” (the empty bit in “p”, for instance). Comic Neue is the corporate version of handwriting: efficient and uniform. The look and feel of Comic Sans is like that of a rough and cute (childlike) handwritten typeface. The unified appearance and clearness of the font is based on repeating familiar established forms. Lines are crooked, and angles of vertical strokes vary greatly – the lowercase “g” leans to the right compared to the lowercase “j” which leans to the left – as you would expect from a child’s handwriting. Unlike in many other fonts, the horizontal strokes in the uppercase “E” are different to their equivalents in the uppercase “F” lowercase “p” and “d” are not just the same forms rotated 180 degrees. This has been achieved.Ĭomic Sans was drawn up to imitate the style of hand-lettered comics. According to the Comic Neue website, it was the weirdness of Comic Sans that Comic Neue tries to fix, its “squashed, wonky, and weird glyphs”. How has the worldwide misuse, especially by non-designers, been addressed in the new release of Comic Neue? It seems it hasn’t. This misuse in wrong contexts, together with the font’s ubiquity enlarging the scale of the problem, is probably the main reason behind the worldwide hatred. When so widely used outside this context – in the announcement of Higgs Boson particle discovery say, or Pope Benedict’s resignation letter in the Vatican’s online photo album – the mismatch between the literal meaning of a text’s message and the font’s added meaning of infantility and fun creates a new meaning of immaturity, unprofessionalism, or pretentiousness. Comic Sans is the funny, friendly, cute, cheer-up, informal, good-for-a-child’s-birthday-party-invite font.
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