October 11, 2023 by Sahiba Jassal (‘24)
Hello Blue Streaks. I’m here to answer a frequently asked question I’ve heard muttered in our high school’s hallowed halls: “What is so wrong about Comic Sans?” Well, let’s start from the beginning, shall we?
The infamous font, Comic Sans, was created by Microsoft Designer Vincent Connare in 1994. The font’s original purpose was to be used for the speech bubbles of Microsoft Bob, an animated dog that helped navigate the new Microsoft Windows platform. Connare said his reason for creating his own new font for Microsoft Bob was because “dogs don’t talk in Times New Roman.” Well, I hate to break it to Mr. Connare, but dogs can’t talk at all, thus I cannot fathom why he would make Microsoft Bob a dog in the first place. And not only was Connare’s reasoning in creating the font flawed, but he himself admitted in 2017 to using the font just once in his life. Seems like a pretty useless font if the creator of it found himself using it only once, don’t you think?
Well, maybe not. Comic Sans has few repeated shapes in letters and its letters can appear less crowded to some. This is why some disability associations argue that Comic Sans benefits people with dyslexia, as it makes text easier to read. This claim is old, however, and has not been proven to be true. Recent studies from The Bureau of Internet Accessibility have failed to support claims that specialized dyslexia fonts work. It’s more likely that the larger spacing Comic Sans has between characters and letters benefits people with dyslexia, not the actual font itself.
Comic Sans is also, from a designer point of view, ugly. Comic Sans’ letters have unmodulated strokes, meaning that the thickness of the letter strokes doesn’t change throughout the font. This wouldn’t be a problem if the “weight” of the letters was distributed in a balanced manner, like Helvetica. Comic Sans’ letters are heavier. To understand this better, you can directly compare Comic Sans and Helvetica next to each other. You’ll notice that in areas where strokes meet on certain letters in Comic Sans, the letters look heavy. Whereas in Helvetica, the strokes in letters meet more cleanly and evenly. Not to mention, Comic Sans is a tacky and childish font. Alex Trochut, a graphic designer who has worked with companies like Nike, compared the use of Comic Sans to someone wearing flip flops at a wedding. He completely captures the essence of Comic Sans with this comparison: overly goofy.
If you’re a 12 year old typing up a book report on The Hatchet, it makes sense to use Comic Sans. Middle schoolers are weird like that. However, I expect more from a high schooler- especially from my fellow Saratoga Springs High Schoolers. We aren’t unprofessional. We aren’t goofy. We have style. We don’t use Comic Sans.