| Category | Script (typefaces) |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | Vincent Connare |
| Foundry | Microsoft |
Comic Sans MS (or Comic Sans) is a casual script typeface modeled on fonts used in American comic books for several decades. Sans is short for sans-serif. The modern Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation. It is classified as a casual, non-connecting script, and was designed to imitate the historical look of comic book lettering, for use in informal documents.
The typeface has been supplied with Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, initially as a supplemental font in the Windows Plus Pack and later in Microsoft Comic Chat. The font's widespread use, often in situations for which it was not intended, has been criticized.[1]
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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, specifically The Dark Knight Returns (lettered by John Costanza) and Watchmen (lettered by Dave Gibbons).[2]
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, began to use it. 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. The font is also used in Microsoft Comic Chat, which was released in 1996 with Internet Explorer 3.0.
The Boston Phoenix reported on disgruntlement over the widespread use of the font, especially its incongruous use for writing on serious subjects, with the complaints focused around a campaign started by two Indianapolis graphic designers, Dave and Holly Combs, via their website "Ban Comic Sans".[3] The movement was conceived in the autumn of 1999 by the two designers, after an employer insisted that one of them use Comic Sans in a children's museum exhibit,[2] and in early 2009, the movement was "stronger now than ever".[2] The web site's main argument is that a typeface should match the tone of its text, and that the irreverence of Comic Sans is often at odds with a serious message, such as a "do not enter" sign.[4]
In the 2005 session of the youth model parliament in Ontario, the New Democratic Party included the clause "Ban the font known as Comic Sans" in an omnibus ban bill.[5]
Comic book artist Dave Gibbons, whose work was one of the inspirations for the font, said that it was "a shame they couldn't have used just the original font, because [Comic Sans] is a real mess. I think it's a particularly ugly letter form."[6]
"I’m Comic Sans, Asshole", Mike Lacher's angry monologue in the voice of Comic Sans reacting to the criticism leveled at it ("You think I’m pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don’t all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can’t all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type")[7] was adapted as an animated short film in 2011 by Joe Hollier.[8]