Comic Sans MS

Comic Sans MS

Category	Script (typefaces)
Designer(s)	Vincent Connare
Foundry	Microsoft

Comic Sans MS (or Comic Sans) is a sans-serif casual script typeface. 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.^[2]

History

Earlier versions of Comic Sans had an eye in the Euro sign. This was later removed because 'The EU was going to sue us over that.'^[1]

Microsoft designer Vincent Connare began work on Comic Sans in October 1994. Connare had already created 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).^[3]

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.

Comic Sans Pro (2011)

Originally appeared as part of Ascender 2010 Font Pack as Comic Sans 2010,^[4][5] it is a commercial variant designed by Terrance Weinzierl from Monotype Imaging. It added italic variants of the original fonts for total of 4 fonts, extra ornaments and symbols including speech bubbles, onomatopoeia and dingbats.^[6][7]

OpenType features included ligatures, lining figures, localized forms, old style figures, proportional figures, tabular figures, swash, small capitals, stylistic alternates, stylistic sets (1-3).

The italic fonts later appeared in Windows 8.^[8]

Opposition

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".^[9] The movement was conceived in 1999 by the two designers, after an employer insisted that one of them use Comic Sans in a children's museum exhibit,^[3] and in early 2009, the movement was "stronger now than ever".^[3] 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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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."^[12]

Film producer and New York Times essayist Errol Morris wrote in an August 2012 posting, "The conscious awareness of Comic Sans promotes — at least among some people — contempt and summary dismissal." With the help of a professor, he conducted an online experiment and found that Comic Sans, in comparison to five other fonts (Baskerville, Helvetica, Georgia, Trebuchet MS, and Computer Modern), makes readers slightly less likely to believe that a statement they are reading is true.^[13]

Celebration

In the Netherlands popular radio DJs Coen Swijnenberg and Sander Lantinga decided to celebrate the font by having a comic sans day on the first Friday of July. Comic Sans Day has been held since 2009. Some Dutch companies, e.g. KLM, have their website in Comic Sans on this day.^[14]

Notable uses

• In the simulation game The Sims and its expansion packs, Comic Sans was used for all in-game text.^[15]

• In 2010, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was criticized for using Comic Sans in a public letter regarding LeBron James's decision to leave the team.^[16] The usage caused a resurgence of interest in, as well as criticism of, Comic Sans.^[17][18]

• Also in 2010, the game Kingdom Hearts re:coded, the "secret message" the game was centered on used Comic Sans.^[19]

• On April Fools' Day 2011, typing the name of the fonts "Comic Sans" and "Helvetica" into the search engine Google produced a page of results entirely in the Comic Sans font. ^[20]

• Later in 2011, the parody website The Onion featured the font in a faux-news story in which "experts" discussed why people find the font to be so humorous.^[21]

• When selecting Comic Sans to display instant messages in Skype, the emoticon menu icon changes from a happy smiley to a sad smiley.^[22]

• In July 2012, when the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced at CERN,^[23] the spokesperson of the ATLAS experiment used the font in her presentation of the results.^[24][25][26]

• In December 2012, Nobel laureate in physics, Serge Haroche, used the font in his Nobel lecture.^[27]

• In December 2013 the internet meme Doge, along with the resultant cryptocurrency Dogecoin, Comic Sans MS, came into prominence. ^[28][29]

• Searching "doge meme" on YouTube will result in all the text of the page changing to Comic Sans MS, in honor of the Doge internet meme.

• In 2013, the Vatican used Comic Sans for a web publication of photos of Pope Benedict XVI, following his retirement.^[30]

See also

• Chalkboard (typeface)
• Kristen (typeface)
• Waltograph
• Papyrus (typeface)
• Core fonts for the Web

Notes

References

• Connare, Vincent. “Comic Sans Background Information.” Comic Sans Café.
• Connare, Vincent. “Why Comic Sans?”
• Macmillan, Neil,. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.
• Ascender 2010 Font Pack Overview with Comic Sans 2010

External links

• Comic Sans MS font information (Microsoft typography)
• Typowiki: Comic Sans
• Comic Sans Café (Microsoft typography)
• Snog Blog: The Vincent Connare Interview
• Comic Sans | Font for the masses or weed of the graphic world?
• Short video of Vincent Connare at 2009 ROFLThing NYC telling the story of Comic Sans
• Ban Comic Sans an opinion piece about the movement by Dr Chris Scanlon from La Trobe University

Comic Sans Pro

• Linotype page
• Terrance Weinzierl page

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