Comics Sans is destined to be the eternal debate among designers, it is a reality. The creation of Vincent connare it spread like wildfire among content creators and controversy soon erupted. Two antagonistic camps developed: the lovers and defenders of the source and the executioners who demanded their murder without further consideration and for the good of the creative community. To this day the war continues and in some ways it seems that the font is being a source of discredit or unpopularity for all designers who dare to work with it.
A colleague has left us a comment in the article that talks about typography in web design asking for some more respectable alternatives to Comics Sans. I'm sure that many of you are also interested in finding different solutions to this source, so in today's article I am going to propose a selection of 12 fonts that are very similar in character and have a better reputation:
- Comic New
- chalk board
- Caflisch Script Pro
- Zapfino
- Bradley Hand
- Delius
- roller script
- HarabaraHand
- Cosmic
- Pacifico
- Ranch
- Qarmic Sans
But wait a minute ... where does so much hatred towards Comics Sans come from?
Let's start at the beginning, that is, let's go back to 1995, the year it was released Windows 95 and it became a social phenomenon. At that time Vincent Connare's proposal had been rejected at first from the operating system's typographic catalog, but was finally accepted. The opportune circumstances were given for our friend to become perhaps the most famous typeface in history. Among that catalog of sources there were not many more emotional alternatives so to speak. All the proposals that there were were serious, scientific and technical, ultimately boring for many users. Let us remember that towards the end of the nineties the computer was implemented in family homes. Millions and millions of people were going to have the opportunity to choose a font from a catalog for the first time… Here came the real disaster! I myself spent my long time in front of the screen, playing with Paint or creating invitations to imaginary parties, and it is that for what child of that time Comics Sans was going to go unnoticed? For none! In addition, it is also necessary to admit that among those rivals (Times New Roman was never the best option to create flyers and you know it), Comics Sans had the assured success and in fact it became a phenomenon.
The most graphic example of aversion against the innocent source
The fact that I am going to relate below is probably the best example of what we are talking about. We will have to advance a little in time, more specifically until 2010 (neither more nor less than 15 years after the birth of our dear? Source). LeBron James, a famous basketball player decided to leave his hometown team to join the Miami Heat. The news in itself was a real nudge, but it was overshadowed by another reason for public discussion that was even more controversial. You know where I'm going, you don't miss one. It turns out that this player decided to make this radical news public on his blog with the Comics Sans font. From that moment on, no team, no basketball, no retirement, no signing ... "LeBron James resurrects Comics Sans" appeared in the headlines of the mainstream media. The result was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter and social media ablaze with the topic. We are talking about bigger words.
So ... does using Comics Sans make me a bad designer?
I personally consider that it is a typeface that can be used with a good finish in compositions of a certain type such as comics. What usually fails is the use made of the font. I do not consider that it is a wrong typeface or with a nefarious design (although it is true that the lack of kerning is a point that goes against it). What I think is that its exhibition field is very limited to very well defined settings. At the end of the day, it is about learning to develop our sensitivity when applying our fonts and integrating them into our designs. Typefaces are another creative manifestation and by themselves they include a message, a vibration and some connotations. Personally, I still don't understand how many people use Comic Sans to write denunciations, legal writings or even epitaphs (it is almost as if a clown buries the deceased in question). Perhaps the rush, the stress, the lack of interest in the aesthetic result ... There may be many reasons, but that does not mean that it ceases to be an aesthetic and even semantic nonsense, I would almost say that a contradiction.