Comic Sans

Comic Sans is a script typeface that is used inappropriately so much that it is probably the most hated font in the world. That makes it an obvious choice for my list of interesting fonts.

What does Comic Sans look like?

Comic Sans Regular

Comic Sans Bold

What do you use Comic Sans for?

As its name implies, Comic Sans is a good choice for comic book style talk bubbles. It can also be used as display type for anything that needs to have a friendly and informal look to it. It is not very suitable for e-mails, body text, presentations, name cards for anyone over 12 or corporate communication.

The history of Comic Sans

Vincent Connare created Comic Sans in 1994 for Microsoft. It was designed as a display font for software packaging for kids. Microsoft used the font in a number of Windows ‘95 related products, including Internet Explorer. The typeface quickly became very popular but it was abused so much that an anti-Comic Sans movement erupted.

Trivia

For some time, Apple used Comic Sans for its iCards service.

Other sources of information

Bancomicsans.com is more fun than the Wikipedia page on Comic Sans. If you don’t mind downloading the 10 MB file, Vincent Connare’s own Ihatecomic presentation is worth reading. Far less serious is ‘I am Comic Sans, asshole‘.