Why does everyone hate Comic Sans?

You have to have lived through the Web circa early 90s to understand. EVERY amateur website (and way too many supposedly professional ones) was done in Comic Sans. It holds the same place in our hearts as animated gifs of rotating, flaming goat skulls and dripping-blood page breaks.

Because it has been overused.

Because it’s cheap, it’s childish looking. Comic Sans doesn’t make a document be taken seriously. The font should be sophisticated and adult – in BOLD.

I used it a lot when I was doing publicity and advertising in the 90s. I really liked it then, but agree with those who say it was overused.

Because it’s really ugly?
Whenever i read a website that uses Comic Sans i always get the feeling that the owner or writer is telling me: “Do not take me too seriously, what i write is not a big deal.”

I don’t think they were in an upheaval because it’s overused. Times New Roman and Arial are the most common fonts there are and are used for everything and I doubt anyone would’ve outraged if he had used one of those two.

I think it’s because it is kind of childish-looking (it kind of looks like a child’s handwriting). My teachers in 4th grade and such used to print out assignments in that font. It’s a fun kid font, not a serious business font like Arial or Times New Roman.

I used it for casual things like company beach party invitations.

I only really hate Verdana, because it’s not really a font.

@dpworkin when is a font not a font?

when Microsoft generates it specifically to be readable on a screen, without regard for aesthetics.

Comic Sans always had a little special place in my heart because I adore the original Sims and that’s all done in Comic Sans.

Ah, thanks. Never had hoid of it.

It looks childish to me. But what’s-‘is-name really should just quietly start building a the best 5-man squad he can and keep his fool mouth shut. Everyone knows LeBron went down there for the tax breaks! Florida doesn’t have any state income tax!

I feel only Day Cares should be allowed to use the font and it should not be used by someone over the age of 10

Never heard of him, a French stand up by any chance?

It’s not just because it’s overused. You can hate it on first sight.

And it’s not necessarily a rational, intellectual hatred, explainable with reasons point by point. It can be a visceral hatred, a raw instinct that tells you this is alien, this is other, this is intolerable and not to be borne. And STUPID. It can trigger a wild, slavering, uncontainable rage that transcends the verbal and passes straight into an overpowering urge to destroy, obliterate, rend to pieces, demolish. Aaaaughh!

As a designer, seeing it used on media everywhere draws attention to the fact that whoever designed that media doesn’t have any designing skills – Comic Sans is a default font in Windows, it is a jovial lighthearted font, and in my opinion the only appropriate use of Comic Sans is in comic book speech bubbles or for kids’ products, certainly not for writing a pissed off letter! Using Comic Sans gives this impression to me: “Listen, I needed to design a lost-cat poster in 2 minutes on my work computer, and I picked whatever font looked cutest.” And sure, this could be an appropriate use of it, though it’s really stretching it. But when I see Comic Sans on real life physical products (I have a drinking game that is basically Simon Says, labeled in Comic Sans), it’s just a big sign that whoever made that product has no design sense, and thus I inherently respect the product less.

Fonts carry a lot of meaning over and above the words. Imagine if the names in the Vietnam Memorial were written in Comic Sans.

An even plainer example, think of the emotion WHEN PEOPLE TYPE IN ALL CAPS, IT CONVEYS ANGER OR IMPATIENCE EVEN WHEN WORDS DO NOT.

@dynamicduo – Lost cat poster! So you’ve read the hilarious email exchange internet funny that’s been going around, I take it?

I don’t know, this is the first time i hear about this. Personally, it’s no worse than arial and times new roman, those are the epitome of boring fonts, comic sans is a tad better than that. In fact, in my opinion, there are many more fonts worse than comic sans!

All of our architectural drawings are required to be in Futura Bk BT.
What’s wrong with simple Arial?

I know that a lot of designers hate it, but while I don’t use it unless I’m doing something for kids, I don’t mind seeing it. In fact, I almost never notice it. Since most people don’t have design expertise, when I see a random poster for a garage sale or lost pet or garage band, I tend to assume that, like me, they picked the first font that was legible and didn’t spend hours and a few Valium agonizing over the design of something that just needs to get across the point that for the set of vintage Batman plates priced at 79 cents, you need to go to 14th and Sherman between 9 am and 6 pm, and Mr. Fluffy is missing and could you please return him if you see him.

@aprilsimnel Oh yes indeed! I love that exchange. The posters he makes are actually hilarious from a designer’s standpoint. “The cat is lost in the negative space”... classic! On the other hand I have indeed seen many lost animal posters done in Comic Sans. To my designer mind, combining a poster of sadness with a font of happiness is hilarious, unintentionally and sad for the animal but funny for me at least.

@dynamicduo: I think the red hat at the end was priceless though. A nice, final “F you” lol

@dynamicduo – Would you believe this station ID from the 70s taught me negative space? No Comic Sans here!

http://trueslant.com/lewisgrossberger/2010/07/09/you-hate-comic-sans-well-i-hate-you-so-there/

This question drew my attention: I have used Comic Sans many times for flyers at our church (targeting children). I do quite a bit of other media projects at our church, but I use fonts that are appropriate for the task.

Because it’s fucking ugly. Honestly.