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When should you use Comic Sans? [diagram]

Shared by Zee
October 18, 2009
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should you use comic sans 8542 1255877206 2 When should you use Comic Sans? [diagram]

 

  • Stef
    Hmm. I know it’s always fashionable to bash Comic Sans, but here’s a hint: its suggested usage is *right in the name*. If you have a Mac that came bundled with the Comic Life app, or have the trial/bought it, try this experiment at home, kids:

    Open up Comic Life and create a quick cartoon strip. Pick a template and drop some images into each frame, maybe style them so they look more cartoony. Add a few speech bubbles and fill them with text. Now, here the magic happens: instead of using the default typeface, open up the fonts panel and use *shock, horror* Comic Sans. Oh, make sure you use uppercase text so it follows comic convention. OK, you’re done. Stop. Step back and look at it. You know what? It doesn’t look half bad or at all out of place, does it? Who’d have thought! (Lint McCree BB does look better, but hey, Blambot excel at comic lettering.)

    Vincent Connare’s a talented man, no doubt. It’s not his fault Microsoft bundled one of his designs and enabled it to be used way outside its original remit.

    And with that rant finished, I’m off to typeset yet another movie poster in Trajan. It’s all the fault of those damn Roman stone carvers, I tell you…
  • Love the diagram....more people need to see it! Comic Sans is probably the most abused font ever. I can't think of any reason to use it...especially when there are better script fonts out there for anyone who cares enough to find them.
  • Maarten
    Well, actually, this is a very good reason to use comic sans:
    "[create] a look no-one is afraid to criticize" when showing mock-ups to clients. You should check www.balsamiq.com for the ONLY good time you should use it.
    (Not affiliated...)
  • Comic Sans Walks into a Bar
    Joke, oldie but goodie:

    "Comic Sans walks into a bar and the bartender says 'Hey, we don't serve your Type in here"
  • Monsterhond
  • philb28
    Brilliant! You could do a similar thing but for Time New Roman!
  • bart
    There actually is nothing wrong with times new roman when used properly. Comic Sans simply cannot be used in a proper way...
  • It's the font you use if you're a college sorority girl counting the days until Spring Break.

  • The most useful diagram of all time!


    This comment was originally posted on barbaranixon's posterous

  • Frances
    My company's template used to be in Comic Sans and I thought it was the most unprofessional font imaginable, except maybe Wing Dings.
  • b°b
    Nice diagram, but it would be even better when done in Comic Sans.
  • Haas
    COMICsans what so hard about that?
  • my company use this font in an employment contract.
    heh.
  • The flow-chart is incomplete. It needs a "will your document be used to teach young children" option.

    Comic sans is one of the only typefaces in which the character "a" is drawn as children are taught to hand-write it. The "a" you see here confuses kids who are learning the alphabet and how to write. That's why many primary-school teachers use comic sans.

    The world needs a larger range of child-friendly fonts!
  • I wish every. single. person. on the internet would see this!
  • This is funny *and* true.
    I can think of lots of similar flow charts that could be assembled - like - "When to hit Reply-All"
  • Comic sans is perfect for my fisheggs comic series!
  • Hubajube
    Comic Sans is the mullet of the computer age.
  • elaine
    sort of scary that people are so passionate about fonts.
  • Mike
    The same diagram could go for Papyrus too. Ugh... I threw up a little just thinking about it.
  • thypos

    Jajaja… muy bueno!!!


    This comment was originally posted on Blog Vecindad Gráfica Diseño Gráfico

  • Claro, nada mejor para una tira comica que una helvetica… o una helvetica… o una helvetica.


    ADORO COMIC SANS!


    This comment was originally posted on Blog Vecindad Gráfica Diseño Gráfico

  • When I was 19, I self-published a collection of my comics as a graphic novel. All of them were lettered in Comic Sans. After one reviewer criticized me for this, I bought a less ubiquitous font from Blambot. Best decision of my comics career.
  • Brett
  • It seems everyone here is falling under one of two groups:
    1) "EW COMIC SANS NO"
    2) "Duh, use it in cartoons!" (they use the word 'comics', but they're talking about the funnies in the newspapers.

    I'm pretty sure it was intended for graphic novels. The hand-lettered speech of characters from comics like X-Men and Spiderman and such, really.

    I wonder if we'd have this problem if it was called 'Graphic Sans' or something. Or maybe we'd then see it over-used for titles or subtitles of figures and graphics.
  • "If you love it, you don't know much about typography. And if you hate it, you really don't know much about typography either and you should get another hobby." - Vincent Connare, creator of Comic Sans

    This quote and more in a rather interesting student documentary about the font (inspired by "Helvetica" by Gary Hustwit): http://vimeo.com/1994310
  • Comic Sans is every designer's worst nightmare. Collegehumor.com had a funny video a while back about it.
  • Anonymous
    it's funny that a blackmail from some self proclaimed terrorists to Mr Berlusconi these days was written in ... Comic Sans! Never trust the one who uses it (in fact it was an hoax).
  • What's wrong with Comic Sans? I prefer Monotype Corsiva though.
  • I do happen to like Comic Sans. But I agree, it does have its place. Speech bubbles would be one.
  • cookies
    my boss would yell at other departments in comicsans when she would email them... i tried explaining to her why they didn't take her seriously. it got her to make the body of her emails a more respectable font... but she kept her signature in comicsans.
    needless to say: fail.
  • RaeLynn

    *Guffaw*Love it…and totally agree.


    This comment was originally posted on The Other Drummer

  • jejejje… simplemente lol.

    aun no entiendo bien por que se odia tanto a la Comic…


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • jejejje… simplemente lol.

    aun no entiendo bien por que se odia tanto a la Comic…


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • LizB

    I remember thinking how to tactfully tell my mother-in-law this when she used Comic Sans for our wedding open house invitations. Not the best day.


    This comment was originally posted on The Other Drummer

  • LizB – Literally laughing out loud.


    This comment was originally posted on The Other Drummer

  • RaeLynn

    Ditto Dave’s comment LizB.


    This comment was originally posted on The Other Drummer

  • Ja ja ja, totalmente de acuerdo!!!!

  • Genial =)


    Heru!: es horrible, por eso la odiamos tanto =D (pero horrible horrible)


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • El odio viene a que es probablemente la tipografía más utilizada de la historia a pesar de ser tan horrible


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • mildred

    how UTTERLY ironic! i was just with a friend this morning who was making a note to go home with kids in her daughter’s kindergarten class…and what font did we use?? comic sans! however, we both decided that it is a ‘kid friendly’ font and makes parents think "school note." i don’t know…maybe it was our lack of sleep, or the fact that we’d only eaten cookies in the past 12 hours…but it seemed logical to us at the time :)


    This comment was originally posted on The Other Drummer

  • @Marcos: jejejej “horrible” jejejeje… la verdad no la encuentro tan tan mala… pero tengo entnedido que hablando en terminos de diseño es la peor de todas, no se bien el porque… pero se que la odian. Pobrecita, recuerdo cuando era pequeño Comic Sans era mi primera opcion u.u


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • Paul
    I wish Apple would pay attention to this site. Comic Sans is the font used in the Notes application on the iPhone, and it drives me nuts.
  • grafixgoddess
    sorry paul....actually the font apple uses is Marker felt. not comic sans.
  • Mike
    Marker Felt is only a few thousand times nicer than Comic Sans.
  • Ramen
    That may be true but a few thousand times zero is still zero.
  • Fantastic! Should make a t-shirt with that on!
  • kumori

    Lo cierto es que fea, fea, no es, pero las hay que son mucho mejores (No me pregunteís cual, pues no lo sé, pero seguro que hay una más bonita) y son menos utilizadas o directamente desconocidas


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • I think it was the cookies. :)


    This comment was originally posted on The Other Drummer

  • komarom
  • ideasandinfo
    As unprofessional as Comic Sans may be for most purposes, teachers love it because it does a reasonable job of emulating hand-written print--thus allowing them to create samples for kids.

    Yes, it has been over-used in recent years, and a growing numbers of followers are jumping on the bandwagon to ban it, but this much maligned typeface does have a place.
  • GrannyNerd
    Designers have to find something to complain about. Some years ago it was Helvetica; now Helvetica is coming back. Garamond, Palatino, Bodoni -- all had their heyday and will be back. Comic Sans is good for youngsters and a few wall posters and such, not a document full of type! We all have our favorites and those that we do not like. Sorta funny to see how many followers a complainer can gain.
  • KageTora
    I am an ESL/EFL teacher for kids and I use it only when I am making stuff for the kids - the 'a' looks like a handwritten 'a' - that's all. I'd never use it for anything else. You see it all over the place, though, along with misplaced apostrophes and MS Office's horrible Word Art and Clip Art.

  • Brilliant! And very true. #justsaynotocomicsans


    This comment was originally posted on rickmans's posterous

  • Verdana Rulezzzzz!


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • I love Comic Sans! I'm gonna start right away reprinting the Bible in Comic Sans!

  • Jajaja muy bueno. Jajaja me rei dos veces.


    This comment was originally posted on Punto Geek

  • duddenmadder
    people complain about such useless shite
  • Tols
    There are so much evil trojans, bootkits and virusses but none of them did the essential: remove Comic Sans and leave everything else as it is.
  • Adam
    Yeah, because ugly overused typefaces are among the biggest problems we face today.
  • Gato
    Hating so much comic sans seems to me more like a fad. You see, if you don't loathe comic sans then you're not a good designer, because "good designers don't like/use it". Yes, it might not be a pretty font, but come on, it's not -that- ugly, there are others much much worse than cs.
  • Hahaha this is great, and absolutely true, so ugly.
  • jpople
    I saw--no kidding-- a tombstone. In Comic Sans. That's probably what killed him.
  • Islandstone
    For all you firefox users out there: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/...
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