This font has been criticized by designers, computer users, and even comics fans for years. In the past month, I have had 3 clients use this font for business documents. Since it has come up a few times in the recent weeks, I decided to have a design discussion recently with one of these clients, I was asked, “So… Why do you not like Comic Sans?” Here is the lowdown of why I as a designer do not like to use this font.
This font was designed for use in informal documents, which of course includes comics. It’s just too playful and cartoony for professional use. When used in a business document, it ends up looking cheap and unprofessional.
Another reason, it’s very overused – especially in PowerPoint presentations. It’s even used on websites now. One of the reasons it is overused is because it’s shipped with every PC. Comic Sans was released in the early 90′s by Microsoft and has been included with every operating system since the introduction of Windows 95.
I don’t think Comic Sans is a bad typeface, really. It is very popular with children and students as well as elementary teachers, and I can live with that. Also, I know some (bad) designers who have used it, and of course non-designers all around the globe have used it. I don’t blame them; people are unable to make good design decisions because they have had no typographic schooling. If your design piece is comics or other humorous material then we can talk, if not, please do me a favor and put the font aside.
Carol Ensminger displays a unique balance of both creative and technical prowess. Carol’s skills encompass a variety of graphic and marketing capabilities including: web design and development, creative graphic design, blog development; package design; trade show design, collateral materials and more. Read more.
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