Hi! Thanks for stopping by! I’ve never been a fan of Comic Sans. I have, however, always been curious about what led to this font becoming the “World’s Most Hated Font”. How can a font be SO hated that it has a Ban Comic Sans Movement to its name?

Does it really deserve such amounts of disgust?

You might say well, yes.

But for scientific purposes, let’s look into the birth, rise, and fall about a font that all of us know so well.

Disclaimer: all the font on this site is sadly not Comic Sans, but Comic Neue. This is to:

Contents:

  1. The Birth
  2. The Rise
  3. The Fall
  4. The Rebellion
  5. The Lessons
  6. Conclusion

The Birth

Let’s head back to the ’90s. Microsoft was working on building a software called Microsoft Bob — a program designed to provide a user-friendly experience to folks using computers for the first time in their lives. It consisted of cartoon characters giving instructions, for using the program, in speech bubbles. This made it very intuitive and almost cartoon-ish. A designer named Vincent Connare saw that Microsoft Bob used Times New Roman — an extremely popular serif font released in 1932. He believed this font gave the program too formal an appearance and wouldn’t appeal to the younger generation of users. He didn’t like the fact that cartoon characters and speech bubbles were being paired with a “serious” font like Times New Roman.

Comic Sans was the font he created as an alternative. Using only a mouse and cursor (wow!), he created this font based on the lettering style of comic books he, at the time, had in his office — The Dark Knight and Watchmen. However, Vincent couldn’t finish creating the font in time. Hence, it wasn’t launched along with Microsoft Bob.

Another Microsoft Launch was on the way, though — Microsoft 3D Movie Maker was launched in 1995. This software used cartoon guides who spoke with speech bubbles, making Comic Sans the perfect fit for it. This was the entry of Comic Sans into the world.

The Rise

Following its launch with 3DMM, Microsoft started shipping Comic Sans with a lot of their software. They shipped it with Microsoft Plus! — an add-on pack that included games, themes, fonts, and programs for Windows 95. Later on, it was included as one of the default fonts shipped with Windows 95 and subsequently, further Windows versions. It also became part of the default fonts for Microsoft Publisher and Internet Explorer.

Since it was installed on every Windows machine, computers that were seeing huge adoption throughout the world, Comic Sans became a commercial success and saw widespread usage. It was widely used by designers, illustrators, and artists which makes sense as it was a font created based on comic book font. And if you think about it, this was the use that Vincent had intended with the font — he never designed it for sophisticated use. It was a font to be paired with cartoons and illustrations to put forwards stories and ideas to the younger generation.

The Fall

Four years into its release, Comic Sans started to see backlash. Since this font was so easily accessible and well-known, it started being used everywhere. Designers started complaining that it was being severely overused, especially in serious and important contexts — like warning signs and formal documents. They simply could not digest that a font made for cartoons was being used for serious matters. They found it unprofessional, inappropriate, and almost some sort of mockery. Its similarity to kids’ handwriting also put forward the idea that the font was immature and too playful.

As said by Jo Mackiewicz, a Professor of Rhetoric and Professional Communication at Iowa State University, “I think a lot of the reasons people hate it is that it’s seen so often, and in places where it should not be used. The fact that it was being used outside of its rather limited purpose — that became obnoxious to people who knew better.” Prof Jo also thinks that because of the ubiquitous and informal use of Comic Sans, it became associated with other bad design elements, “like centered types, or all caps, or underlining”.

Hence you see, the hatred for Comic Sans was a result of its immense popularity and success. Too much Comic Sans led to a downfall we all know so well.

The Rebellion

This hatred that we’ve talked about was so strong that some people went as far as to create a movement against it. Holly and Dave Combs, designers from Indianapolis, started the Ban Comic Sans movement — a campaign to eradicate the misuse of Comic Sans. However later, realizing that the ban movement had attracted a lot of negativity, they changed the campaign to “Use Comic Sans” in 2019.

In the 2005 session of the youth model parliament in Ontario, Canada, the New Democratic Party included the clause, “Ban the font known as Comic Sans” in an omnibus ban bill.

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.”

The Lessons

An important takeaway from this tale is the importance of typography in design. Choosing the right typography is so essential. Perhaps it is not fair to blame Comic Sans if a font intended for cartoons is being used in formal documents and resumes.

An aspect Comic Sans has really excelled in is its legibility. According to a Twitter poll made by TES with 7234 participants, approximately 44% of teachers use Comic Sans in teaching resources — and rightly so. Comic Sans is great for children since it is very close to how children themselves write. Research also suggests that Comic Sans is a suitable font for dyslexic readers. It is even officially recommended by the British Dyslexia Association.

Conclusion

Interestingly, and rather relieving to hear, Vincent doesn’t mind the hate that’s stirred up for his famous creation. He says “If you love it, you don’t know much about typography, and if you hate Comic Sans you don’t know very much about typography either, and you should probably get another hobby.” — which sounds about fair. After all, never forget, Comic Sans was made for cartoon characters, specifically a cartoon dog. It’s only everyone else who started using it for, everything else.

And again, love it or hate it, as Vincent says, “You can’t go anywhere without seeing Comic Sans”.

Hopefully, Vincent’s grinning in joy about that!