I came across an article today which rather surprised me – it turns out that some people have a font issue. A real one. An issue they feel so strongly about that there is actually a movement to ban a specific font – comic sans.
How could you not like comic sans? The world needs irreverence in it, and comic sans has that going for it. Comic sans is like the adorable and slightly dense uncle you have. It’s a kitten offering a rollicking with a ball of yarn. It’s an invitation to a kid’s birthday party. Comic sans is sweet and kind, it’s not only a plaster over a bleeding knee, it’s a plaster covered with Mr. Bump or – if pressed – Hello Kitty. Hating comic sans is like saying you hate puppies. Who hates puppies? Comic sans comes out for the rare occasion, the levity, the cloudy fluffiness. It’s not for documents, funeral announcements, or emails because people will come out of the computer and choke you. It’s for whimsy.
People have strong feelings about fonts. I know I do – I write every day at work and if you want to send a recovered obsessive/compulsive over the edge, do things like:
1) Don’t line up your bullet points
2) Don’t group objects together in PowerPoint and make sure they’re both vertically and horizontally aligned
3) Don’t put spaces after periods.
4) Think you’re being cute or familiar when writing to me – even in IM – and use “u” for you and “i” for “I”. It’s not cute. It’s lazy. It will see me close down the window on our IM dialogue, too.
5) Use different types of font within the same document just because you can’t be assed to format it.
6) Track changes (unless I have requested it).
7) Use Times New Roman.
And see that right there is me falling into the same font battle as others. Fonts say something about the user or the document being written. They come to life and illicit reactions.
I loathe Times New Roman. It is stuffy and offensive to me. It is the basis of repressed and thinks the Dickensian attitude was “on to something”. To me, it has a personality, one which reads The Telegraph without any sense of irony:
Cross it with Arial – Arial just is. It’s bog standard. It’s Ragu in a jar, a generic brand popsicle on a hot summer day, a blind date with someone’s cousin whom you don’t mind, only you really don’t want to spend the rest of your life with them.
There are some real gems out there, too. Like this one, which is called Birch Standard, but let’s be honest – it’s Lenore, the Cute Little Dead Girl.
Recognize this one? It’s Palace. I guarantee that you will receive a wedding invitation written in it, because if it’s written in it, it signifies true, deep, pounding true love! True love so great that swans fall from the sky in exploding plumes from their love! Love so immense that no ordinary script can herald to the world the impending nuptials, it must be written in the ink of sparrow blood and tears and it must be written in the font of desperate throbbing togetherness! Read now, now, while I swoon from their love!
Other fonts just tell it like it is, like Bauhaus:
Broadway (of course):
Stencil, forever branded in my mind as the writing accompanying a certain kung-fu grip action hero:
Bell gothic:
Regulators:
And of course there’s Wingdings. You just can’t get away from Wingdings. Microsoft could have abandoned it like Helvetica (or maybe I just finally found a way to rid my PC of Helvetica, either way my life is a lot more complete), but no. It stays around, usually used by some funster who has too much time on their hands.
(It says: I am a fucking idiot who is going to waste your time by making you translate this.)
But hate comic sans? Really? Is that possible? I mean, come on – look at it:
I rest my case.
-S.
My favourite? Palatino. Make of that what you will.
I am kicking your comic sans puppy with my roller skates whilst wearing my koolaid tee.
OK this made me LOL. I love your impression of all the different fonts! But I still hate comic sans. It’s fine for what it was intended for – comics – but I will punch anyone that uses it for emails, memos, flyers, presentations or *shudder* websites, and they will deserve it.
You know how some people like to go window shopping? I like to go font cruising on those 1000 free fonts sites. I download extra fonts all the time. Just to have them.
I have found in my old age that I really really dislike non-serifed fonts. Such as Arial. Can’t handle them at all. And I guess comic sans fits in there too.
Oh my God. To think that I have read your blog FOR YEARS now and I just now find out that you like Comic Sans. You would think that after all these years together I would know you a little better. Admittedly, I don’t comment much, so you would have no idea how much I hate Comic Sans, but how could I have not known this about you? Well, I guess I will just have to learn to deal with it, because I can’t imagine having come this far with you and bailing over a font. But still… Comic Sans? Seriously?
I really don’t mind comic sans. I don’t love it, and I never use it. But when I see it, I think: Charlie Brown. Field mice. Shirttails. Don’t hate any of them, but they also don’t enhance my life in any way.
Helvetica, and Times New Roman, though, can both fuck off. They can take Arial with them. If I have a choice, I generally go Calibri. Calibri and I get on just fine.
I don’t comment here much but I had to on this one. I like different fonts for different occasions and tend to favor Gill Sans for everything that requires no tone. I love comic sans though… and wish they would create a script that is nicely legible on every computer screen.
Loved your characteristics of the fonts!!
And e-mail in text type drives me batty. If you don’t have time to write, then just don’t!
I do despise Comic Sans and I think less of the person who uses it in any sort of communication.
But I don’t get a negative vibe off Times New Roman, I always thought of it as sort of a standard, classic. Nothing to like or dislike.
Legal docs look good in Garamond.
My font hatred or love is solely dependent on my mood. But I suddenly have the urge to change the font on my work notes worksheet to Comic Sans. Now that I know how much it annoys people…
I use Calibri as my font for e-mails, but for legal documents? I prefer Times New Roman. I know, I know… but they just look wrong in another font. If a client sends me one in another weird font, I change it. TNR makes it look “official” – and I realize that sounds pretentious as hell.
Oh, I love Garamond! And Arial is so nice for the eyes.
My pet peeve is when people use Comic Sans in their email signature!!
This is why I love Verdana. It’s like, Arial’s prettier cousin. Also? This whole thing is fucking brilliant.
Thanks to Statia for tweeting and sending me here (not that I wouldn’t have ended up here anyway). I have a font addiction. I have way too many and always try to find the perfect font for whatever I happen to be doing at the moment. I really like Garamond, Book Antiqua and Calisto. I love Palatino (LOVE! – I hated it when Eureka switched to something else for their credits), and Calibri and I’m not fond of Times New Roman myself. I don’t hate Comic Sans though. To me it says exactly what you mentioned along with lemonade stands, ads for lawn services from the local pre-teen, and fliers asking for help to find a lost puppy. It has a place in my heart, but that place is not a very big place. Your characterizations of fonts are perfect.
Fucking brilliant. Truth be told, I have no opinion at all on fonts. Can I still sit at the cool kids table?
Comic sans is the BOMB! Heh. At work we are required to have all our documents in Times New Roman. BORING. Thank you for a great chuckle!
That was the most entertaining tutorial on fonts that I’ve ever read. Never again will I take fonts for granted, or look at them the same way. Seriously, I think you may have a potential alternate career here in educating the people about the proper usage of fonts. ;)
And I am so in agreement with you about people who cannot communicate in any other language than textspeak. Or cannot keep their fonts consistent in the same document.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joelle and rambleginger, originalstatia. originalstatia said: I love her: http://bit.ly/cDB1ka Font humor. [...]
I don’t like Comic Sans – it reminds me of report covers in junior high – but an online movement? People need to get laid, clearly.
I discovered the amazingness that is dafont and now have no use for standard fonts. I mean…why choose a normal font when I can write in Harry Potter font? It makes menial tasks so much more exciting.
[...] font, or even going so far as loathing others. After reading a post on Everyday Stranger called Font of Knowledge, I thought about my own bias for [...]
I’m with you on all of them. I hate Times New Roman and never use it. Arial is the one I use the most because I think it is easier to read.
Loved that you used a When Harry Met Sally quote.
You’d like my company – Calibri is the default.
I love comic, but I use scribble to write letters from dogs. I sooo love fonts. They make me happy.
OH this made me laugh so hard (especially the broadway quote – years ago I taught horseback riding on a very larny theatre camp in upstate NY – so showtunes are forever burned into my psyche). My thoughts on Times New Roman – the same as yours – stiff and boring. I use Verdana instead of arial on email, because I am exceedingly sophisticated. *snort* As for Comic Sans? As a graphic designer – I know that if I ever, EVER use this font, other designers would have me publically flogged, and honestly? If I see it used in any shape or form it gives me the heebies – there are so many other cute and childlike fonts out there that really comic sans should just go quietly into the night. Did you hear about the outcry over the use of “papyrus” in the title of the movie “Avatar” ? (Design nerd alert) yeah – it was funny.
This made me laugh.
I like Calibri and my blogs are done in Verdana and both of those are okay. Comic sans, meh. I agree with you, I don’t use it, but seeing it reminds me of my 10yo self who did use it.
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Dude, I have font-downloading sites on favourites. I have 8 Christmas fonts alone! And Calibri is nice, better than Arial but always reminds me of spreadsheets, even when used in text. And me no like spreadsheets much, probably because I’m drowning in ‘em currently. (although not as much as you…!)
Yowza isn’t this a ‘bike shed’ of a post!
Comic Sans = fine by me just don’t ask me to use it.
Times I agree (when the beautifully forged Garamond (pro if you can get it) is around to fulfil the duties of stock serif font Times can go take a running jump)
Arial – Agreed, along with Verdana, Tahoma and Calibri – their status as the Microsoft default font of choice will forever brand them as dull in my eyes.
Helvetica – I can’t agree with you on this one. Sure the standard weight is a bit boring but there’s much more to it than that! It was actually mentioned by my design lecturer at uni that “if you can’t do it with Helvetica then it’s not worth doing” and I have to say I’ve found him to be right more often than not.
My pet peeve? People who try to push their opinions on something as utterly inconsequential as font choice on others with almost religious fervour … oh and people who use Impact – they should be shot!
Comic sans is fine with me, but like May, my preferred font is palatino, mostly because when you put it in italics, it really LOOKS like italics.
Font choice is important, though. If you want to see an interesting one, check out the one I found for my daughter’s softball team. The name of the font escapes me now as it’s on my home computer and I’m at work now.
Comic sans is fine with me, but like May, my preferred font is palatino, mostly because when you put it in italics, it really LOOKS like italics.
Font choice is important, though. If you want to see an interesting one, check out the one I found for my daughter’s softball team. I designed that logo myself. The name of the font escapes me now as it’s on my home computer and I’m at work now.
Dang. The link is http://insanitysoftball.com/index.html
AHH! I really hate Times New Roman also. Personally I go for Verdana or Arial.
HA HA HA, that’s my favorite line from Harry and Sally and it’s so damn true it’s almost not funny!
My ex-husband went a round with me over a friggin picture hanger, you know the kind you can get at Walmart for a quarter. Yeah, intelligence at it’s finest!
Awesome post. Our company brand guidelines are Arial and Times New Roman. It does my head in. Can you get more boring..?
I have 3,749 fonts. Comic sans is not one of them. But it is not the ugliest and most poorly designed font on the planet. It comes in second to Papyrus.
I admit to being a type snob. It’s my job!
The way I see it, if you can achieve the same whimsey with a font that is well designed and well engineered, why use junk?
Old MacWrite Chicago font saved my ass in freshman English. Need a five page paper? Write a bit over four in Helvetica, convert to Chicago and voila! Five pages. :)
Oh dear, I quite like Times New Roman…but then I am pretty repressed. I would draw the line at holier than thou, though. I hope…
I owe you a correction to my last comment. I was looking through my font library to match something for an ad, and it turns out I have 4,670 fonts now, and one of them is indeed Comic Sans.
I didn’t know it was there. I’m sure it came with Microsoft Office.
I have no choice – APA format specifies Times, and several of the research councils do too. So I’ve got used to it.
I’m a fan of Trebuchet, though, myself. That’s what we used for our wedding stuff.
This is a brilliant post! How awesome. I edit for a living, so I have my own list of perverse little peeves. However, comic Sans used to bother me…it no longer does. Instead, I’m way more offended by the color of font used for work e-mail. Hot Pink? Really?
How to you feel about the Papyrus font?
Urgh, I hate Comic Sans. For work emails, I alternate between Calibri and Ariel. Now before you start shouting about Ariel again have you tried it at a smaller font size? I think it looks much better at 9 than 10! I need to get out more.
An interesting and unusual blog post but wanted to add my two penethworth. Everything has to be lined up and it has to be arial.
For the most part, I agree with you — what I’ve found most about liking or disliking fonts is that I tend to despise any font that I have used/has been used around me too much.
This means I utterly loathe, destest, despise, and generally bear deep grudges against a number of standard fonts, including but not limited to: Times New Roman, Helvetica, Cambria, Comic Sans (my mother is a teacher, she used it CONSTANTLY when we were growing up), and Arial. If I have a choice, and need it to look fairly professional, I tend to pick Garamond, but if it doesn’t need to look professional then I play around. I know far, far too much about fonts.
I also can’t turn in an essay that isn’t justified — even though it’s only supposed to be left-aligned. It just looks so much better justified, I can’t help it.
I once picked up a Shakespeare play and opened it, only to find it had been written in Arial. I could NOT help myself — without even thinking, I thrust it away from me, slammed it closed, went “Eughhh,” and pushed it back on the shelf. My mother was with me and she looked shocked — I tried to explain and she didn’t get it. How can you write SHAKESPEARE in ARIAL?? Sacrilege!
My game is “font spotting.” I can usually identify a font face used on a sign/label/public building because— guess what?— there are only about two dozen font faces that EVERYONE goes to. Papyrus is, of course, the font face of the decade, but I can get odder contenders like Formal 436 BT (because I actually used it for a while), Brush Script MT, and of course, Scriptina and Zapfino.
Comic Sans is not a problem font so much as it is a font that has been used inappropriately. Websites are a particular offender.
At any rate, my favorite fonts vary depending on the application. I will never use Papyrus, which is a pity since I actually like it, but it’s too much everywhere. I also need to have fonts which are legible for the most part, so some of the “cooler” fonts are out since you can’t make out what they say. But let’s give you two lesser-used font faces that I like: Skia is a plain but somewhat quirky font, good for legibility on and off-screen, and Maiandra is what Comic Sans wants to be when it grows up.
LOL- I read this article too, Hilarious post…..for my twopeneth, I’m having a love affair with Britannic Bold at the moment but as a MacUser boringly default to the universal choice of every ‘creative’ person, Helvetica…..
that bell gothic is nice.
I hate comic sans. Almost as much as I hate Times New Roman.
Calibri is my default font at the moment :)