Comic Sans

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Typeface name	Comic Sans
Category	Script
Designer(s)	Vincent Connare
Foundry	Microsoft

Comic Sans is a digital typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994, by the Microsoft Corporation. It is classified as a casual, non-connecting script, and was designed to imitate comic book lettering, for casual use in informal documents. The typeface has shipped with Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, initially as a supplemental font in the Windows Plus Pack. It has since become one of the most popular Microsoft system fonts. Comic Sans is used in both print and webcomics as a substitute for hand-lettering, although many comic artists prefer to use custom-designed computer fonts instead.

1 History
2 Criticism
3 Notable usages
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Comic Sans MS is available in two weights.

Microsoft designer Vincent Connare says that he began work on Comic Sans in October of 1994. Connare had already created a number of child-oriented fonts for various applications, so when he saw a beta version of Microsoft Bob that used Times New Roman in the word balloons of cartoon characters, he decided to create a new face based on the lettering style of comic books he had in his office. He completed the face too late for inclusion in MS Bob, but the programmers of Microsoft 3D Movie Maker, which also used cartoon guides and speech bubbles, picked it up. The speech eventually became true voice, but Comic Sans stayed for the program’s pop-up windows and help sections. The typeface later shipped with the Windows 95 Plus! Pack. It then became a standard font for the OEM version of Windows 95. Finally, the font became one of the default fonts for Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

[edit] Criticism

Humor and warmth is seen in the euro symbol (€) in Comic Sans MS features an eye in the upper terminus.

Because of its ubiquitous use, Comic Sans has become the subject of a campaign by some designers to limit or eliminate its use, on the grounds that (as typographic purists claim) it is poorly designed and that its inclusion in the Microsoft system fonts package lends itself to inappropriate use—for example, as a text face in documents or at large sizes in signage.

Some typeface designers say that the typeface is poorly drawn, virtually equal weight being given to the downstrokes and horizontals, and little thought given to the kerning between character pairs, eliminating any of the informal characteristics of true hand-drawn lettering. To take the face too seriously may be missing the point. With digital font-making software nearly anyone can make an alphabet that will technically function as a typeface.

In his defense, Connare claims that it was not originally designed as a typeface, but as a solution to the problem of finding lettering suitable for the packaging of children’s software. An example of the informal nature of the font can be found in the euro symbol (€), which in some versions has an “eye” cut out of the serif at the top, making the symbol appear to have something of a “face.”