
In Defense of Comic Sans - miobrien
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/25/i-dont-care-what-others-say-this-is-typeface-me/
======
ben509
After a while I wondered if he'd ever actually defend it, but he does:

> Comic Sans, I have learned, is also a typeface favored by the British
> Dyslexia Association...

> I like the spaciousness it allows between letters.

> I can see an entire sentence in it as I can in no other typeface.

> I feel it provides a clarity for me as a writer that is helpful in revising
> my writing — and revising, it has been noted, is what writing is really all
> about.

If I were writing this kind of defense on another subject, it'd go like this:

> In defense of spoons:

> I find that I have to butter my toast with them slowly and carefully.

> I feel that as I'm carving a turkey, the bluntness helps me take my time and
> the spoon is quite good at breaking the joints apart.

It seems like a sane defense of Comic Sans is that it's great for lettering
comics and short, playful announcements. If you're dyslexic and don't have a
proper font like OpenDyslexic, it's useful there, too.

Not all fonts need to be as universal as Helvetica.

~~~
atoav
The criticism on Comic Sans consists of two factions:

\- Designers who often critizise weird _usage_ of the font (e.g. it is great
for a birthday party invitation and bad for a stern warning inholving serious
danger)

\- people who misread that criticism, hop onto a bandwaggon of their own
making and say the font is bad as a whole, because it is not “serious”

Anybody knoes that papyrus font? This had a similar story, with sometimes
absurd usages.

~~~
ricc
I’m probably one of those who use the Papyrus font a tad too often when I was
in high school...

------
spraak
My wife homeschool's our daughter (which I add to the context for that it
shows she wouldn't have already been exposed to Comic Sans from public school)
and one day my wife decided to switch some of the worksheets she created for
our daughter to use Comic Sans. Our daughter was really excited about the
change and said that now they're "more fun and easier to read, it seems more
like a kid made this".

~~~
yiyus
> it seems more like a kid made this

Your daughter is very right. That's why it is not the most appropriate font
for a legal letter from an attorney, for example.

------
gatherhunterer
I love progressive death metal. I love that the songs are loud and visceral,
then soft and nuanced. I love the complexity and technicality. But I don’t
play it on the speakers in my thinly-walled apartment, nor do I play it out
loud in public spaces like work, the library or city streets. As much as I
enjoy it I understand that it demands focus in a way that can be very
obnoxious and unenjoyable for others.

People don’t dislike the author’s taste, they dislike being subjected to it.
Get over yourself and use a less obnoxious font when distributing your work.

------
cwkoss
I find comic sans much harder to speed-read than other fonts. The trope of
"comic sans is bad" has become an overused meme, but it is rooted in truth in
my opinion.

To me, declaring that you like Comic Sans is like declaring that you like the
Kardashians. Doesn't mean you're a bad person, but it certainly calls your
taste into question.

~~~
mark-r
"comic sans is bad" may be an overused meme, but not as bad as comic sans
itself.

~~~
yiyus
The position of the font's author looks very reasonable to me (from the
article):

> If you love Comic Sans you don't know much about typography. And if you hate
> it, you need a new hobby.

~~~
mark-r
I don't hate Comic Sans, just sort of dislike it intensely. And yes I do need
a new hobby.

------
earthboundkid
Hating Comic Sans is lame and old. Hating Lobster is new and hip.

~~~
Grollicus
Are you talking about lobste.rs or are you talking about this font?
[https://www.dafont.com/lobster.font](https://www.dafont.com/lobster.font)

Where is it used?

~~~
hybrids
They're referring to the font, yes. Lots of people used it in the post-Web 2.0
era because it has a "distinctive" look, which naturally lent itself to
fatigue.

[https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lobster-
font](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lobster-font)

[https://web.archive.org/web/20180213181648/http://5in5nyc.co...](https://web.archive.org/web/20180213181648/http://5in5nyc.com/2012/05/31/dear-
startups-lobster-is-the-new-comic-sans/)

------
ddingus
I like Comic Sans when I see super smart people, like physicists as an
example, use it in presentations.

Makes me think of Feynman and all his crazy antics.

Maybe there always needs to be irreverent time. Human feature.

Use it. I do not mind. Never did.

It also makes me think of Mrs what's her name long ago in primary school. She
opened my eyes to the wonder of the world and the many peoples in it. Someone
would have done that, I am sure.

It is the how she did it. Was with a laugh, like "can you believe this place
we are in?"

I treasure that vibe. Matters.

~~~
ljm
Not that I’m calling myself super smart, because spending so much time
commenting on forums about things I don’t know that much about probably means
I’m not, but Comic Sans is my goto font for pretty much all my presentations.
Comic sans and well placed gifs.

It’s part of the charm for me, and I use it as a self-confidence boost and a
reminder that life doesn’t have to be so serious, because now I can inject
some humour into a talk and I have to own that well enough to keep a straight
face while delivering the material. Especially in your typical office set up,
it’s quite cathartic, and I genuinely enjoy showing people that you don’t have
to be so perfect.

I have a lot of respect for people who can bring a bit of lightness to what
can otherwise be quite dull day. We are all human after all.

As an example, I think Gary Bernhardt is great with this. The Wat talk is a
classic.

~~~
ddingus
I agree with you and articulated my sentiment with coarse precision.

I share your respect. There has to be a better way to say it, but people using
comic sans for this vibe, who could easily pull off something else gets at it.

------
dwohnitmok
One of the big Haskell luminaries, Simon Peyton Jones, exclusively uses Comic
Sans in his presentation slides.

This talk has more:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1bd1ia/spj_and_com...](https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1bd1ia/spj_and_comic_sans/)

------
dougk16
If anyone's interested, I wrote a blog post on some purely technical reasons
that Comic Sans is probably not a good idea, at least for a website. This is
coming from someone who _really_ tried to make it work, but my hand was
finally forced.

[https://aytwit.com/blog/goodbye_comic_sans](https://aytwit.com/blog/goodbye_comic_sans)

------
daveslash
I've heard that it is actually a really great font for people who suffer from
dyslexia.

Also, obligatory link (some language, but otherwise sfw)
[https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-
asshole](https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole)

~~~
eddieh
This gets repeated over and over, but if you look at the literature, empirical
studies are split between _may_ slightly help to no observable difference.
Where things get interesting are studies that take into account letter
spacing, they show that Comic Sans spacing may somewhat help. Still, if you
apply the same spacing to a regular font, accuracy increases about the same.
The accuracy increase is so minimal that it probably presents no practical
advantage AFAICT.

------
089723645897236
This guy uses it tastefully though and its not hard to see why he likes it and
he's right. It's highly readable. The people who hate it probably encountered
it during Web 1.0 with accompanying Geocities style webdesign. GIFS! Cursor
trails! Neon! Ads in technicolor! And double embossed chunky comic sans links
and tables in too many colors because you just could. Web 1.0 was crazy and I
miss it.

------
janitor61
Is there a monospaced Comic Sans I can use in my IDE?

~~~
Naac
[https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/tabular-type-foundry/comic-
cod...](https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/tabular-type-foundry/comic-code/)

------
jwilk
Archived copy:

[https://archive.is/2SqY9](https://archive.is/2SqY9)

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KingMachiavelli
Luckily, due to whatever fonts I have installed (linux), I sadly cannot see
the comic sans version.

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ozzmotik
I'm surprised I haven't seen a mention of Vsauce's "A defense of comic sans"
video: [https://youtu.be/GUCcObwIsOs](https://youtu.be/GUCcObwIsOs)

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lostgame
I immediately said ‘that’s not Comic Sans’, and then read the first line,
which states that on iOS it’s Marker Felt.

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karmakaze
The only knock on Comic Sans was people thinking/using it as Tekton which is a
different target demographic.

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LeoNatan25
Click the reader button of your browser to be able to read this text. :-P

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kd3
All laws made by government should use this typeface.

