Comic Sans Got the Last Laugh 27
On July 4, 2012, CERN physicist Fabiola Gianotti announced a major quantum field theory discovery using a PowerPoint presentation in Comic Sans, sparking both mockery and debate. The font, created by Vincent Connare for Microsoft Bob in 1994, featured deliberately imperfect letters inspired by comic books. Comic Sans shipped with Windows 95 and exploded in popularity as personal computing democratized typography. A backlash emerged as the font appeared on everything from funeral notices to museum signs, culminating in Dave and Holly Combs's "Ban Comic Sans" campaign.
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED", but in a dumb font (Score:3)
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I plan on stipulating in my will that my funeral program be printed in Comic Sans. Fuck you font Nazis!
Soup Kitchens (Score:5, Insightful)
Kudos to the physicist for doing real work and not wasting everybody's time with nonsense.
The rest of them should be feeding the homeless if they have so much extra time on their hands.
Hear me out ... (Score:5, Informative)
.... I've actually seen one place where a similar handwriting font is used and it is OK. Before you get your pitchforks:
The awesome indie game Terraria uses a font based on Andy (typeface) [wikipedia.org] for its UI and it is perfectly fine. (Apparently Pokemon game cartridges also use it according to the Wiki.)
The problem is 99% of the time time it shouldn't be used; clueless people don't understand why they aren't being taken seriously.
A good rule-of-thumb is:
* Sans Serif for Screens
* Serif for Print
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I prefer san serif fonts for everything. Judging people by whether their letters have serifs is the weirdest sort of Sneetch-think.
Re: Hear me out ... (Score:2)
It's not really a matter of judging people (shouldn't be, anyway).
There are typographic 'rules' and principles that are there to make text clear, communicative and representative of a message or messenger.
One doesn't think an architect snooty for designing a workmanlike building (not an art piece) well. Do you imagine the architect gets by without rules and principles?
Re:Hear me out ... (Score:4, Funny)
I actually saw something similar where it was actually well composed visually. Then I worked with an engineer who would write reports with it...
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Twenty years ago, I walked into a web developer job where the website had been done 100% with Comic Sans... guess what my first order of business was?
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and a monospaced font for numbers...
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They probably do get, they probably just don't care, and if it annoys someone who does all the better. What do think the response is going to be when you call them clueless?
Frankly if you want to pick a more important script related issue they should have forced doctors to print instead of using cursive, anyway I think the prescriptions I get now are printed.
wait a decade (Score:3)
This is a new slashdot article on news that was reported 12 years ago?
This has to be a dupe
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That is quite a backlog.
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I think they forgot to include the story in the summary. The headline sounds like there's news, while the summary sounds like the setup to a punchline that isn't there.
I don't get it. (Score:5, Funny)
The subject says "Comic Sans Got the Last Laugh", but there's nothing alluding to why in the summary. And the 2nd link in the summary goes to this very same Slashdot page, thus it's a circular link. Am I missing something?
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The comedy?
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Should have made the summary render in Comic Sans.
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"I'm writing in a font beyond her range of reading!"
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So... literally (Score:3)
announced a major quantum field theory discovery ... in Comic Sans
Comic Sans is a font of knowledge. :-)
The Cavs' owner rates a mention here (Score:1)
When LeBron James left for Miami in 2010, owner Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers wrote a sort of jilted-owner open letter missive in which he described the "cowardly betrayal" by James. That letter was in Comic Sans MS.
If memory serves, Gilbert described how the Cavaliers would win a championship before LeBron... Who, on his return a few years later, led the franchise to its sole championship. Whether that amounts to Comic Sans winning out in the end, I doubt. LBJ had won already in Miami. (Shrug.)
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LBJ had won already in Miami. (Shrug.)
Was that before or after his term as President?
People care too much (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a font. If it's legible to the average person, who the hell actually cares about swash and serif? People in graphic design, who probably imagine other people care when generally we really, really don't.
Re: People care too much (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think designers care so much what you think of Comic Sans.
I think they care about clarity, legibility and the underlying message the font is sending.
Something most non-designers aren't aware of is the many tiny differences between fonts for print and fonts for display. Print fonts are calibrated for things like laser print dot gain and offset ink spread, kerned differently for placement in a book vs. in a logo or on the side of a building. Often different fonts are used when the font is lighter than the background vs. the opposite, to keep the text legible.
The democratization of typesetting means anyone can do it, but not that everyone can do it well, no more than having a Home Depot credit card makes one a homebuilder.
Designers care that it's done well. Not what you think, and don't expect you to know all the minutae.
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Uh huh. Pull the other one. I've worked with those people and watched them agonize over which font to use when most people can't tell the difference if you swap 'em out with everything else being equal. And I've seen them INSIST on purchasing a specific font because none of the ones packaged with their OS will do.
It's just... stupid. Proportional spaced vs. monospaced, I get. Terminal vs. something with rounded edges I get. Occasionally something silly like a 'handwriting' look or a gothic font. But
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It's a font. If it's legible to the average person, who the hell actually cares about swash and serif? People in graphic design, who probably imagine other people care when generally we really, really don't.
Scroll through Netflix and look at the titles, the ones in the cover art. Or a bookshelf if you have one. If those were all the same font you'd scratch your eyes out. That's graphic design. It's one of those things you don't appreciate when it's done right and smacks you in the face when it's wrong. Try making a little texture for a bookshelf in a video game that doesn't look a stack of engine repair manuals.
Really this applies to any kind of design. When it's right you don't pay attention, and when it's