I think the whole hate started because it’s a cartoony font that ends up getting used for everything from forwarded e-mails from your mom to serious business memos. Comic Sans is the Clip Art of the font world.
Although I think Papyrus is slowly taking over as the most hated font.
I think the reason Comic Sans is hated is because it’s so overused. As the name implies, it works well if you’re doing a comic-type thing. But it’s often shown up in places where such lightheartedness is not required- or appropriate. It’s even been used on coins, for God’s sake.
First of all, for what it is (a font meant to emulate comic book hand-lettering and to be used in that context, it’s just not very good. Take a look at some comic book fonts that are actually used in the business. They’re just as casual and many are bouncy, too, but most of them are cleaner and more fluid.
Now look at Comic Sans again. It’s just plain awkward. The lines all look just a bit amateurish and uncertain, all of the letters are leaning in very slight but misaligned directions, and there’s no sense of movement. Notice how the lowercase i and j and p and q lean in opposite directions like wallflower preteens trying to talk to each other? That godawful lowercase m? I don’t see “fun”. I see “awkward and inept attempt to appear fun”.
So if I were Microsoft’s powers that be, some other, more confident comic book font would be the default casual printed script, and it would be perfectly okay when used in a comic book context, or for printing up a few things like birthday invitations or posters for a school picnic. Still, it wouldn’t be immune to overuse, but I think other posters have covered that issue pretty well. In short, what’s fun to look at isn’t always what’s least stressful to read, and, in my opinion, trying to inject extra personality into a document by using a conspicuous novelty font is the equivalent of playing wacky sound effects and incidental music to “improve” a conversation.
Yeah, you hit a nerve there. The same nerve that lets bubblegum flavor or navy blue or the saxophone turn me into a horrible person…
Probably. Just like Comic Sans says “third grade” and “forwarded glurge from your aunt”, Papyrus says “yoga studio”, “food co-op” and “upscale Indian or Asian restaurant in a not-so-trendy small to mid-sized metropolitan area like Omaha or Rochester”. Comic Sans is beloved by teachers and unsophisticated secretaries; Papyrus is the favorite of yoga moms that buy tea with flavors like “rejuvenation” and “calm”.
I agree that THAT looks horrible, but it also doesn’t look like Comic Sans to me.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz See? They’re all lined up nice and proper, not leaning like wallflower preteens (great image, BTW!)
