# People who use the Comic Sans MS font **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 30, 2000, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373 "2000-08-30T18:11:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/1 "2000-08-30T18:11:41Z")
(Bear with me, this is my first OP in the Pit…) Am I the only one who is sick to death of the “cute” Comic Sans MS font? I’ve seen it everywhere, in e-mails, on web pages, even printed on flyers and newsletters. **STOP USING IT, PEOPLE!** You’re not being original, and it looks really immature and amateurish. **ARGH!** Since it’s a Microsoft-created font, I’m tempted to blame them, but I’m not flaming the font, but the people who use it. **GO FELCH YOURSELVES!** If you want to use something other than Times New Roman or a Courier font, try Arial. It’s “untraditional” since it’s sans-serif and easy to read, to boot. Comic Sans is _not_ easy to read, unless you like reading the handwriting of a child for paragraphs at a time. **SQUICK OFF!** (Ah, I feel much better now.) ---
**Author:** ![lucie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@lucie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucie)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/2 "2000-08-30T18:30:16Z")
The most egregious use of that font I’ve been subjected to yet was when a manager of mine took about 100 pages of documentation I’d written for accounting procedures and changed the damn font to comic sans ms. I wasn’t sure whether to be more pissed about that, or about the fact that she took my name off and inserted her own as author. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/3 "2000-08-30T19:03:48Z")
For some bizarre reason, my system has decided that when you copy text out of the “view” window in the document manager software and paste it into Word, the correct font is comic sans ms. If you think it looks stupid when used to be “cute” in an email, you should see it for paragraphs of boilerplate legalese… **lucie** , maybe your boss actually had some kind of Word problem and didn’t know how to change it back, in addition to having problems defining personal boundaries. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/4 "2000-08-30T19:08:29Z")
I’m getting sick of that font. My sister uses it in everything she makes. Ugh. I used to use it for small sections of my webpage (\[http://www.stas.net/kinkajoy/](http://www.stas.net/kinkajoy/)\ ) until I realized “Hey, you know what? THIS LOOKS STUPID!” Oh, and I was also doing lettering work for a comic that I drew and scanned, so I used Comic sans MS. That’s about the only place where I’d recommend it. BTW, lucie, re: your manager replacing your name on the document; is that _legal?_ If I were to do something like that in school, I’d get suspended/expelled! But then again, maybe you should be happy that your name isn’t associated with 100 pages of accounting documentation written in that goofy font. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/5 "2000-08-30T19:34:10Z")
It does look childish. That is why I use it on the one site I use it on. [http://fathom.org/nicky/](http://fathom.org/nicky/) my almost-five-year-old’s homepage. I agree that it gets old, and it’s misused a lot. And why does everyone seem to feel that it should always be BOLD? Grr. The one that really pisses me off, though, is …um… Algerian? Is that the pointy one that’s an outline font, and it’s small caps? GRR. It’s impossible to read except at headline sizes, yet people put their entire fucking page text in it! ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/6 "2000-08-30T19:45:19Z")
I second Montfort on using Arial as an alternative. I use Arial nearly exclusively for my office’s newsletter as well as other locally developed sales collaterals. THe company as a whole uses Arial as well as other similar sans-serif fonts such as Helvetica, Advance and a couple of others. Very easy to read and professional-looking. ---
**Author:** ![Archer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/7 "2000-08-30T19:59:48Z")
I agree, the Comic Sans MS font is annoying. I frequently encounter coworkers professional correspondence in this font, they might as well use a crayon grasped in their fist. These same individuals recognize the need to wear professional attire for their positions, I just can’t understand why they choose to use this font. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/8 "2000-08-30T20:17:56Z")
Heittenschweiler(sp?), all the way! Mostly because it’s just a cool sounding name! ---
**Author:** ![FreakFreely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@FreakFreely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FreakFreely)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/9 "2000-08-30T21:05:38Z")
I guess I just don’t understand **why** someone would use that font. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/10 "2000-08-30T21:55:09Z")
Speaking of fonts, here’s a tip for students. Verdana 12 point takes up more space on a page than Times New Roman 12 point. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/11 "2000-08-30T22:03:12Z")
A lot of the websites that use that font also use the color-cycling effeft. I want to tell them that two wrongs don’t make a right… ---
**Author:** ![kellibelli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e480ec/32.png) [@kellibelli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellibelli)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/12 "2000-08-30T22:16:00Z")
I like Garamond. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/13 "2000-08-30T22:40:48Z")
Well, I like it and use it a lot for work…but I teach Kindergarten, so it’s appropriate. I use it to make nametags and worksheets and for labeling in the classroom. I also occasionally do my parent newsletters with it. I do agree, though, in a business setting, you are better off with Times Roman or Ariel. Keep it simple, especially for something with lots and lots of text. I also have a word processing business on the side (brochures, newsletters, reports, etc.) and use whatever is appropriate for each project. I have about 300 fonts in my Windows folder and over 500 stored on a CD. ---
**Author:** ![Rosebud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rosebud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosebud)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/14 "2000-08-30T22:49:17Z")
I used Comic Sans once on a post card mailing my office was doing-- I chose it because we were trying to play up the informal nature of the event we were advertising. Now I’m as sick of it as the rest of you are, 'cause for a while after that, my boss (who is a wonderful lady, but was unaware that there were fonts beyond Times New Roman) adopted it as her favorite. She would recommend it every time anyone had invitations to do or an event to promote. I like Garamond too, kelli-- switched to that for a lot of the documents I do. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisCTP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@ChrisCTP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisCTP)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2000, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/15 "2000-08-30T23:41:48Z")
Hear, hear, Montfort. Comic sans is way too overused. Good only for kiddie pages and ::gasp:: comics. I use Arial for nearly everything. AIM, browser default, my own homepage, etc. I’m not a big fan of serifs fonts either, but that’s just me. I don’t think I’m going to be able to convince the entire book-publishing industry to quit using Times. 🙂 Trebuchet is a good sans-serifs font, too. My second choice. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/16 "2000-08-31T00:02:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElwoodCuse \* > \*\*Speaking of fonts, here’s a tip for students. Verdana 12 point takes up more space on a page than Times New Roman 12 point. \*\* That’s bullshit. **Courier New** is the king of space-wasting. ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/17 "2000-08-31T00:14:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by neuroman \* > \*\*That’s bullshit. **Courier New** is the king of space-wasting. \*\* Actually, it’s **14-point** Courier New. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/18 "2000-08-31T00:29:23Z")
Well screw you all! I use Comic Sans in my instant messages and I like it. (Ok, I don’t use it in letters, presentations, mail or anything else, nor have I even seen it elsewhere, if I did I’d be sick of it too.) The font that REALLY chaps my hinder is \*#%@)@)& Copperplate…which for around 3 years straight was used in every ad campaign, brochure, newspaper and commercial. It’s finally died down, thank god. Talk about a space waster! ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/19 "2000-08-31T00:39:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > \*\*Well screw you all! I use Comic Sans in my instant messages and I like it. \*\* Well, remind me not to IM you… ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373/20 "2000-08-31T01:06:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Montfort \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > > \*\*Well screw you all! I use Comic Sans in my instant messages and I like it. \*\* > > Well, remind me not to IM you… \*\* Don’t worry, you’re blocked. 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-the-comic-sans-ms-font/31373.md?page=2)