to hate people who defend C*m*c S*ans with no facts

[tokyonambu]

So, the BBC have another article, linking to bancomicsans, giving the highlights of the objections to the typographic cancer of our times. In the comments, Louise, a teacher from the West Midlands (hi!) writes:

As a teacher Comic Sans is an easy to read font, especially for pupils with learning difficulties as it is the only font to use a 'hand writing style' letter a.

(My bold).

The only font, eh? Well, I'm not sure why an "a" with a simple downstroke is the sine qua non of easy reading, nor that you shouldn't aim for people to be able to read common fonts. But it's not true anyway: Century Gothic, or, if we want something everyone has seen Futura. Which is now used for Ikea catalogues, hence its ubiquity.

There are plenty of reasons to ignore Comic Sans snobs, although I confess there was a time when I had my email filters set to automatically discard any message that used it on the grounds that it was probably from an idiot. But please, find a better excuse than "I think fonts should have this magic property and it's the only one".

THere are people who won't use Gill Sans because it was designed by a very dubious individual. Now TBH I think people like that need to get the fuck over themselves as well, but they are not as tragic as people like my DS's dad who can rant for hours about why one font is better than another.

I hate comic sans.

"I confess there was a time when I had my email filters set to automatically discard any message that used it on the grounds that it was probably from an idiot."

I like this, OP. We would get on.

"Primary schools use it and Reading schemes because it makes more sense when teaching phonemes."

Sorry.... what?? How on earth can that be true?

Jesus Christ I hate Comic Sans. I would really like to know how to block emails that contain it because you're right: only idiots or complete arseholes think it has any merit. I HATE it.

I do like Helvetica (have you seen the documentary? I really enjoyed it) and I use Calibri quite a lot too. I recently discovered AR Destine and I have a bit of a soft spot for that now, although obviously its application is fairly limited.

Also, this...

"As a student I used Futura for assignments - then experimented with Times New Roman and my grades improved. [hconfused]"

Jenai- your grades probably improved because your work was easier to read. A font with a serif leads the eye from one letter and word to the next. That's why books, magazines and newspapers largely use fonts like Times. Sans serif is better for headlines, notices etc, and on screen.

(love Garamond & Caslon types, hate Comic Sans)

DamselInDistress - Sasson Infant is lovely. I wonder if I could get our PTA to raise the money to buy it for the school?

Comic sans is just very, very wrong. MorningPaper's thread on this was v. good. I do miss her.

I like comic sans.

:0pppppppppppppppppppppppp

There are arguments for both serif and sans serif fonts. The important point is that they encourage you to read in different ways from each other.

There is very little to recommend Times New Roman though - it has a tendency to resolve itself to vertical lines in the corner of your eye, and has an effect similar to, but much milder than, staring at flickering black and white lines (ie., it induces visual disturbance, which most people don't register consciously, but which affects speed and accuracy of reading, and probably also stamina).

Btw, tokyo:
'Do expand on how a font can make more sense when teaching phonemes' - I guess you're taking the mickey out of the grammar! . But, I think you could argue that a sans serif font is better suited to the modern method of teaching reading through phonics, than a serif fonts. A sans serif font (basically) encourages you to read and scan single words more quickly and easily, so it might be good for teaching children who're learning at the single-word level.

On the other hand, serifs may (I've seen the claim made, but not backed up) help differentiate the bouma word-shape at speed, so may have advantages if you're trying to skim-read at speed.

Gosh, you really all wanted to know that, didn't you?

My name is Bucharest and I love Comic Sans.

(I hate Ariel though, reminds me of that silly writing that teenage girls and for some reason travel agents use, all big fat round vowels and (imaginary) circles over the i. Ariel users are wishing there was that circle option)

One of my new favourites is Myriad. Bet that's infra dig as well. Meh.

"We're told to use Arial for E&D/accessibility reasons."

What? WHAT?

So far we have Comic Sans is good for phonemes and Arial is good for accessibility. What is this, some sort of benefit concert for cheap (literally) fonts?

"THere are people who won't use Gill Sans because it was designed by a very dubious individual."

It's a lovely font. He was a very bad man. It is an issue.

LittleRedPumpkin - I've just been writing about the Jenson typeface. Do you have any opinions on that one?

" I think you could argue that a sans serif font is better suited to the modern method of teaching"

I'm sure you could. But other sans serif fonts are available, you know.

Yes, I know. I'm not keen on Comic Sans myself.

animula - sorry, I'm not familiar with it. My PhD is about scripts and how they make you read, so learning about the fonts is a necessary evil, but not something I can get that excited about otherwise.

Does the Gill = Eric Gill? Was he a baddun, then?

notrightnow - I assumed it was because Time New Roman looked more grown up or something.

Well I'm currently into Tahoma........

Crikey, that sounded pretentious.

What I meant to say was, I don't spend all day blathering on about fonts for fun, you know.

Jenai - I think it is. It annoys me that if I submit my work in 14pt (which I can read nicely), people think it's less 'serious' than 12pt text.

There are real live studies about how people mark the same answers differently if the way they're written is changed.

I am married to an ex-typographer so Tokyo YADNBU.

To all of you who think this is a non-issue, shame on you... so fonts doesn't matter eh? Symbols, art, design, beauty, clarity, communication, language don't matter eh eh?

...philistines, utter philistines.

OTOH the use of comic sans is a perfect indicator of a total mouth-breather.

"Jesus Christ I hate Comic Sans. I would really like to know how to block emails that contain it"

I had to write code to do it.

"I do like Helvetica (have you seen the documentary? I really enjoyed it)"

Indeed. And there was a fabulous exhibition at the NY MoMA a few years ago.

"I use Calibri quite a lot too."

It stands in relation to Frutiger as Arial does to Helvetica. But Frutiger is so perfect that you don't mind. Those Office 2007 fonts are really nice. Well hinted, too. Segoe is a great font to use on screen.

I like Comic Sans. However I am currently troubled by the increase in use of Arial Narrow in my workplace - not good, not good at all.......

I don't Ike Comic Sans much, but it has its uses. However, I would say that neither of the two fonts linked to in the OP have a handwritten a shape. Both are a part circle on an upright, with the upright protruding at the top, The Comic Sans one correctly joins at this top right corner.

were talking htis at work
head SENCO says its great for SN kids

Depends on your handwriting. That 'a' shape looked handwritten when the early fonts were made.

tokyo, I love that you took the trouble to write a code to block CS emails!

Could you do me one to block emails telling me about library fines then?