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".

What a fascinating thread! I love typography and really want to learn more, so this is unbelievably exciting reading.

I once did an amazing letterpress workshop and fell in love with Gill Sans. He's the one for me...

PMSL.... I only saw the first bit of your post "I use Comic Sans at work" on the Threads I'm On preview and thought "I hope you're a primary school teacher and not a lawyer..."

LOL

What's wrong with using Comic Sans if you're a lawyer? Surely the fact you're a lawyer does plenty to suggest you're intelligent and educated, without your typeface having to do it?

I would have thought it's more of a problem if you're trying to look impressive without much back-up, myself.

times new roman
yuk yuk

changing the default font was one of the first things i learned to do when first started using
Word

I once got a letter from a utilities company in Comic Sans. On yellow paper.
I couldn't bring myself to read it so I don't know what it was about. It was patronising and I was enraged by it.
I hope whoever was responsible for that was sacked given a good talking to, frankly.

I'm a bit about Comic Sans, but will read thread to form a rabid opinion for next time round...

But right justification: fuck me, I could PUNCH people who do that...

Never justify the right.

I agree there. Justification has none.

I work for a charity and one of our staff members has taken it upon herself to change everything to comic sans - I detest it.

We are not a pre school, and according to the dyslexia institute Verdana is a good font to use for clear reading purposes.

I think our current communications make us look like we are a bunch of amateurs. Not the professional image we want to portray.

I wouldn't take a lawyer very seriously who used comic sans in emails, sorry.

I think I'd assume that anyone who changed email font from the default was a bit of a knob with time to waste.

Don't think I've ever had a flashing sig. Or barely any email in anything other than arial

I really loathe most fonts actually. It takes me forever to do an invitation on Photoshop.

There's a plug-in for Safari called "Comic Sans Be Gone" which replaces Comic Sans with Helvetica. For the more extreme, there's another called "Helvetica The World" which just replaces all fonts, everywhere, on every web page, with Helvetica. It's like painting your house in ecru and lighting a Vanilla candle in every room, I tell you.

Yes ... except if the default is Times New Roman, you're probably already wasting rather more time ...

I use Comic Sans when I want to be friendly and informal. Therefore, it has a place. Not for use by utility companies.

It's all about having the right typeface for the right situation. I went to a doctor's surgery once which was plastered with Comic Sans notices in bright colours all saying unpleasant things like ONE APPOINTMENT IS FOR ONE PERSON DO NOT WASTE THE SURGERY TIME and PLEASE CONTROL YOUR CHILDREN OR YOU WILL BE ASKED TO LEAVE. very passive aggressive.

I squirm when seeing it used on anything with more than 20 words, or for "grown up" publicity.

I very nearly did some address labels in it today but fortunately Apple have some similar clear "felt tip pen" fonts which aren't as over used.

"I use Comic Sans when I want to be friendly and informal."

Do you write i and j with circles instead of dots?

Now this is the type of thread I like to see in AIBU. Never mind all that: 'AIBU to fancy ' or AIBU to breastfeed, formula feed, or any of that yawnsome gubbins.

When I worked for a charity I used to have to use Comic Sans when I was writing letters or emails to children and young people. The adults got Arial I think.

I like Verdana and Helvetica, and detest Times New Roman.

YADNBU [hgrin]

Can you imagine if we were all able to choose our typeface/font when posting on MN? It happens at work (NHS) where everyone personalises their e-mail signature details, many using comic sans and some actually changing the colour to various shades of pastel. Mainly Always the female staff it has to be said.

"When I worked for a charity I used to have to use Comic Sans when I was writing letters or emails to children and young people. "

"The adults got Arial I think."

It's like watching all the joy in the world running out of a plughole marked "Fonts from Redmond". Couldn't you buy a copy of Helvetica Neue out of petty cash and write letters that actually look decent?

The bizarre thing is, the fonts shipped with Office 2007 and Office 2008 are things of beauty, character and style. Even Microsoft's cruel, dark hearts can sometimes provide some light.