Friday, April 17, 2009

Nothing Funny About Comic Sans

One of my instructors this quarter made us subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. Now, in addition to being the kind of girl that weekends in Napa, I am apparently also the kind of girl that subscribes to the Wall Street Journal. Please feel free to punch me in the face the next time you see me. I just might do that myself.

Anyway, I am actually pleasantly surprised at the kind of information that is in the WSJ. Hefty paper with tons of interesting, quality writing. It isn't just all boring business stories which is good because it is articles like this one that was on the front page this morning (slow news day) about the worldwide hatred of the Comic Sans font and the movement to stop its use that I find so entertaining.

I hate this font. I have a stereotypical image of the type of person that uses this font and it isn't good. I feel my blood pressure tick up a notch when I see something typed in this font. But it has never occurred to me to start a movement dedicated to the eradication of a typeface. These people really need to get a life. I guess the fact that I have ever given a typeface more than a passing thought also means that I could stand to get a grip a little bit too. Even though I don't want to spend my time being a proponent of typeface genocide I am pleased to know there are others out there who believe as I do.

If you have a life and don't want to read the story I will share with you the best quote and the one that sums up why Comic Sans is all sorts of wrong is this: "[it is] analogous to showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume".

Now go forth and type in an appropriate font, preferably one that doesn't involve floppy shoes, while I find something important to think about.

1 comment:

Kath said...

I enjoyed a brief flirtation with Comic Sans when it first arrived on the font scene, but I have since come to loathe and disdain it as well. For the record, I have NEVER liked Times New Roman and am so pleased that MS has finally seen fit to make Word's default font (for PCs, at least) something more tasteful and modern. Personally, I'm a big fan of Futura (available on the MS Office for Mac Word). Ahhh. Font Love.