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".

Eh?

Eh...............?

Sorry Scary. Habbibu spent, and I currently waste, our time on a slightly odd area of research that relates to the shapes of letters in medieval handwriting (which is vaguely relevant to the OP on fonts, since some of our fonts are loosely based on medieval handwriting).

It is probably very boring/strange to anyone else, but as I've said, it pays the bills.

In almost 5 years on MN I have to say this is the most bizarre thread I have ever read.

Mind boggling.

Marks thread and puts into "Why I love MN" folder.

have skipped to the end for expediency's sake. I'm a Gill girl and always will be. sigh

Garamond is my favourite though I am partial to Frutiger when I can find it.

Times New Roman makes me wince.

Oh yes, and Gill is truly lovely and completely distinct from the horridness of Eric Gill.

I use Verdana because it is easy to read in 10 point thus saving onthe photocopy budget.

As someone who worked in the print trade before the days of apple mac and someone who regulary employed typesetters and someone who married a typographer, I have no problems with comic sans

However comic sans is not a font it is a typeface

Comic Sans 10pt bold is a font as a font is the size and style of a typeface

I know everyone uses the word font, even the young designers do but it is not correct

Now we're really getting pedantic! Did anyone see the article in teh Guardian about this on Saturday? Here

Once again mumsnet tackles the important issues of the day.

I quite like Harrington

For academic work, TNR.

Otherwise, default font.

Gobsmacked at this thread. i only opened it because i couldn't work out what the OP was talking about..I don't even know what the dreaded CS looks like!! i use whatever the computer is set to, couldn't tell you what it's called. Only thing i know is that company letters have to be Arial 11, the rest is Greek to me. Wouldn't know a font if it bit me on the arse

comic sans- my hero!

I am not a fan - it's a bit teenage girly imo - but, until recently, I've used it for my visual resources in school as I've always been told by SENCOs that it's dyslexia friendly as it's curvier(curves, apparently are easier to read than straight lines, hence road signs usually being in lower case. Not sure if this is true?)

However I read some stuff recently saying that actally Trebuchet MS is better so I've started using that instead.

we have to use original garamond
dont like serifs
nasty things

I used to write all my work emails in Tahoma (everyone else in my company used Arial) and liked it. But then I got a new job where everyone has to use Tahoma...and now I don't like it any more and wish I could use Myriad instead...

It's true for a given value of easier, yes.

Repetitive straight vertical lines in a font cause are patterns that cause visual disturbance. Most people read a font in which the dominant shape is a straight vertical line more slowly and less accurately than a more varied font, though few of them realize this (the difference is small). Dyslexics perhaps need more help than most, so mind more?

I also suspect that at least some dyslexics are extra sensitive to visual disturbance, but that's my private theory and I have no evidence to back it up!

(Obviously, Comic Sans isn't the only font typeface () that would be good for dyslexics - I don't think there's any reason any another sans serif mightn't be as good.)

It's used in schools a lot for the kids because it's the font among the batch installed by Windows as default that's closest to the print writing style taught in schools (that a can really confuse younger kids for a while). It's not ideal, but in a world where lots of people don't know how to install new fonts and assume that the ones they have on their PC are the only ones available... it does the job.

Sassoon is better but it's a pay-font and isn't installed everywhere. My copy's been misplaced somewhere so I'm temporarily forced to slum it up a bit more than I like.

I may have to use the fucking thing - but I bloody hate it and only use it when appropriate (for stuff that younger kids are going to read). I'm a right font anorak though and have tonnes of them on my PC that I tend to fiddle with for other stuff.

I hate schools that have it set as the default font on their entire IT system and send completely inappropriate things like meeting minutes, job specifications and the like out proudly printed in Comic Sans.

Personally at the moment I'm still quite liking the Office 2007ish default fonts, or century gothic - I use that quite a lot as well.

If you're sending academic stuff in printed in Windings that's not a good plan either :D

Hate Times New Roman though - we had quite an active anti-times new roman group going at uni.

This is some sort of alternative reality, right?

I'm all for Calibri myself, use it for everything. It's simple, stylish and easy to read. I'm writing a story right now, just changed it to Comic Sans and it did my head in after 2 minutes. Oh yes, and my old boss used Comic Sans in all her emails, internal and external. I hated her.

I think it must be, Lady, it sounds like RL to me.

I have been known to actually beg my children to use a font other than Times New Roman when they've used Publisher for their HW.

In fact, I have been known to go and change it when they've finished.

And tweak the layout because sometimes it's wrong and it makes my teeth itch. I've had to close my eyes and sit on my hands when DS1 has tried to produce a poster now he's in secondary and really has to do his HW by himself.

I use Comic Sans at work as I find it easier to read. I'm a lawyer so I hope my clients don't think they are getting advice from an idiot when the get my emails (or maybe they do).