comic sans
Comic Sans font and the Ban Comic Sans movement
04/29/09 11:06 Filed in: typography
I actually
like Comic Sans, for some strange reason. I like to
read my email in Comic Sans, it gives it a less
serious feeling. "We have six chapters we forgot to
tell you about" just sounds better in Comic Sans. If
it was in Times New Roman, I would be horrified! My
typographer friends are probably horrified to hear
this about me, but since I don't design for a living,
I hope they will get over it.
For those of you who might like to know the history of this typeface, here you go:
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.
For those of you who might like to know the history of this typeface, here you go:
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.