What is Comic Sans and why you shouldn't be using it.
Comic Sans, a brief background
Comic Sans, a font inspired by the lettering style in comic books gained popularity after its inclusion in the default font set for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. Since then, it has been widely used in webcomics, comic books, advertisements, and even newspapers. When contrasted with other popular fonts like Times New Roman, Helvetica, and Arial; Comic Sans has a rather casual style and appearance. Although this style is very appealing to children, its use in documents conveying serious information has been widely criticized making it a matter of some controversy.
Why you shouldn't use Comic Sans
The font has frequently been spotted in hospitals, police stations, offices, churches and restaurants, which has led to a movement calling for a ban on the font. This ban is not against the casual nature of the font but it is against the usage of the font in places where the information to be conveyed is of a serious nature. For example, imagine one day your boss catches you sleeping during working hours. Very gently he prods your shoulder with a sharp pencil and wakes you up. You open your eyes and there he is, vociferating a list of consequences you might face for your negligence. You beg, bargain, give a thousand excuses after which he finally calms down. 'Not so easy' he says, asking you to present an honest apology in writing. You sigh in relief. A few hours later you hand over to your boss, a carefully crafted apology written in your favorite font - Comic Sans. The boss looks at it, then looks at you, and asks in a low exhausted tone 'What the hell is this?, Are you mocking me?'. Though this doesn't happen every day, the casual nature of the font can cause a great deal of confusion when it comes to the implication of a particular text. Thus, the point you must remember is, Comic Sans is a causal font, suitable for children and sometimes dyslexics who find it easier to read, but using it in any other place is a typographic sacrilege that simply cannot be forgiven.
Further reading
If you're interested in joining the Ban Comic Sans movement, you can know more about it on their website. Another great site explaining the pitfalls of using the dreadful font is Comic Sans Criminal.
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