Ban Comic Sans

Written by John Leschinski from Leschinski Design on September 1, 2007

In 1995 a font was created by Vincent Connare at Microsoft when he was shocked to see Times New Roman used inappropriately for it’s upcoming comic book styled Microsoft Bob application. Ironically it is now Comic Sans that is being used inappropriately all over the place.

While its not the font itself that’s the issue, it’s the inappropriate usage and the scale of its misuse from government documents to restaurant signage. I personally have seen agencies in the Canadian Government like Fednor put together documents and proposals with Comic Sans MS. Drastic measures have been taken through to ban comic sans in 2002 and Bancomicsans.com was started. Yet still the proliferation of it’s misuse is not on the decline. So tell you’re friends, and ban comic sans from the public lexicon.

What’s your typography issue?

Written by John Leschinski from Leschinski Design on September 1, 2007 | Filed Under Design & Coding

7 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

jew | September 2nd, 2007 at 4:56 am #

i second that motion! ban the comic sans use Ariel fir web, David for hard copy.
Rhys | September 2nd, 2007 at 12:08 pm #

To my left, approximately 6 inches away from me, is a Colwyn Bay FC fixture list.

To cover the costs of printing it, they have sold boxes to a number of local companies.

The company I work for have an advert on there, and it is half written in comic sans.

I wouldn’t mind, but we are a web design company!
SarahG | September 3rd, 2007 at 12:28 pm #

I couldn’t agree more. Everywhere I look is Comic Sans and it’s terrible. It’s even worse when I get an email from someone who uses it plus bright blue text. Do people honestly think it looks good?!

As you say, it’s not necessarily the font that looks so bad but the overuse of it makes the font look bad. Luckily I’ve not had a client ask for it on their website… yet!
Michael from Pro Blog Design | September 3rd, 2007 at 1:29 pm #

There’s no reason that it can’t be useful sometimes.

What would be the purpose in banning it?

If we’re being honest, there are some awful looking websites in general. Perhaps we should ban notepad? Or Dreamweaver? Or the internet altogether? That would stop the problem.

PS - I love the slogan though!
John Leschinski (Post Author) | September 3rd, 2007 at 3:55 pm #

I’m all for banning WYSIWYG’s