Comic Sans Criminal

http://www.comicsanscriminal.com/

by bjonathan • 16 years ago

209 76 16 years ago

comicsanscriminal.com

dansingerman3• 16 years ago

Nice UI.

Can they pledge not to use images to render text?

ciupicri• 16 years ago

I doubt they could use web fonts for the texts written with Comics because of its license.

dansingerman3• 16 years ago

Is there a licensing distinction between use of the font in an image, and use of a font in HTML?

hugh32• 16 years ago

How is it nice UI? I'm forced to read eight words at a time, then click to get eight more words. I have no idea how long this is going to last, and I can't skip ahead to see whether it gets more interesting later on.

mike-cardwell• 16 years ago

Vertical scrollbar?

jessriedel• 16 years ago

Also, for those of us on netbooks, the bottom 1/4 of each "page" is cut off.

RyanMcGreal• 16 years ago

This, from a grocer's apostrophe criminal:

> It quickly became popular for use with young children in primary schools & other childcare thanks to it's [sic] fun, child-like appearance

necolas• 16 years ago

The markup is also fairly criminal: no content; all background images.

regularfry• 16 years ago

Not only that, it doesn't even render properly on a netbook screen. Don't we check our resolutions any more?

dansingerman3• 16 years ago

I notice they have fixed it [the image it appears in] now.

Also Comic Sans is currently trending on Twitter due to this site. It must be doing something right.

maukdaddy• 16 years ago

Is Comic Sans really easier to read for dyslexics, or am I missing an obvious joke?

logic• 16 years ago

http://www.dyslexic.com/fonts

Timmy_C• 16 years ago

It has long descenders and ascenders which make it easy for dyslexic readers to differentiate letters. Dyslexic readers also find handwritten looking fonts easier to read because they are more familiar with that style.

Groxx3• 16 years ago

Probably in part due to them being less symmetrical. "bd" are almost identical in the font on HN, but mirrored, while in handwriting you form different connection angles because you write them differently.

silentbicycle2• 16 years ago

I was curious about this, as well - from the links, it sounds like dyslexics rely more on the shape of whole words when reading, so fonts with pronounced ascenders and descenders (the stems and tails on t, j, etc.) may be easier to read.

The opposite extreme would be WRITING IN ALL CAPS in a fixed width font, making every word into a rectangle.

snorkel• 16 years ago

A rebuttal by Comic Sans: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html

jdp23• 16 years ago

I had no idea Comic Sans was so kickass but I like her even more after reading this rant. "We don't all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can't all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun." Yeah really.

jrockway3• 16 years ago

Excellent. The typography reminds me why I stopped using webmail. People like my mom actually wrote me messages in this font, and I was powerless to change it.

Now I read my email in Emacs, and everything is very pretty DejaVu Sans Mono-9.

avree• 16 years ago

GMail has had the option to disable custom fonts/images/HTML since 2005.

Just FYI.

Andrenid• 16 years ago

This has made me want to change our entire corporate website to use exclusively Comic Sans on every page.

Best laugh i've had in ages.

nandemo• 16 years ago

When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I'm banging the prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I'm shredding "Reign In Blood" on my double-necked Stratocaster.

Genius.

jimmyjim• 16 years ago

Curiously enough, I keep seeing smart people using Comic Sans font when they shouldn't. Very, very smart people. Some of my best professors, some of the most talented programmers I know, etc. Even SPJ! ( http://vimeo.com/15467880 )

And then it comes to me if I'm sitting here caring about presentation more than the content like a prude. I'm not picking on anyone -- just remarking on my very own situation =).

wmeredith• 16 years ago

This is a great example of the difference between intelligence and ignorance.

zck• 16 years ago

It's interesting how this website, while presumably written by a typography enthusiast, contains text that is almost entirely all-caps.

dangrossman2• 16 years ago

It has a few grammar errors too, which is never good when telling others how to write.

kingsidharth2• 16 years ago

Mixing grammar with type? I don't think that is good at all.

baddox• 16 years ago

It's funny, the author is calling the use of Comic Sans a typographical error whilst making his or her own typo's.

endtime• 16 years ago

If the webmaster is reading, your click to scroll doesn't quite work right in Opera - it always scrolls from the top of the page, rather than the current position, resulting in all the previous slides flashing past each time I advance.

dholowiski• 16 years ago

And it looks very ugly on an iPhone- hard to read and text is cut off

joakin2• 16 years ago

Same issue for iPhone here. Also rotating the device screws the page even turning it back to vertical

mycroftiv2• 16 years ago

The only thing worse than using Comic Sans in the wrong context is projecting an insufferable attitude of superiority about font choice, especially when said insufferable attitude is displayed on a website that makes highly questionable design decisions of its own.

EliRivers2• 16 years ago

And genocide. Genocide is more wrong too!

mycroftiv2• 16 years ago

And pedantry such as taking rhetorical tropes literally!

pohl• 16 years ago

If we can't all be on the same page with respect to Comic Sans, then how could one hope to find agreement about the design decisions made on this website?

CodeMage• 16 years ago

Help out typography "illiterates" like me: what are the two fonts you used for most of what you wrote?

silentbicycle2• 16 years ago

While this doesn't answer your direct question, try taking a good-sized block of text (a couple paragraphs from Project Gutenberg, lorem ipsum text, whatever) and print it side by side, in several different fonts. Compare the feeling you get from the typography itself.

I mostly write in MonteCarlo (http://www.bok.net/MonteCarlo/), but programming fonts are a different discussion entirely.

powrtoch• 16 years ago

Here's what I would like to say about this issue of a font being for a purpose:

Yes, most of the examples presented on this site are heinous and tremendously bad typeface choices. But that has nothing to do with the fact that comic sans was designed to mirror comic book lettering. The designer's intent is not embedded in the typeface, only his actual results.

Papyrus falls into the same category. People get bent out of shape about it: "It was meant to look like Egyptian lettering, but now it's on my Greek menu! It makes no sense!"

Guess what? It doesn't matter what it was "intended" to convey, it matters what is actually conveyed when people read it. Frutiger was designed for airport signage, but it happens to look great outside of airports too. Granted, it was never meant to be a niche font, but the principle applies: you shouldn't get upset on account of people using something in ways you didn't foresee or intend.

All this to say, if you're going to argue that a font is ugly or doesn't belong somewhere, that's fine, but your argument shouldn't be based on what the font was intended for. Sometimes the things we make turn out to be way more useful than we thought.

And I'll stick my neck out here and even say that I think Papyrus often looks good on menus :)

j_baker• 16 years ago

Regardless, I think the point is to choose fonts in the context of what you're writing, not because they "look cute". Now, whether you chose that font because of its original author's purpose or because you have some other purpose is a separate issue. In that regard, it seems like you agree on the major idea: that you should have a purpose. The way you choose that purpose is a detail.

tel2• 16 years ago

The funny part about this font has always been that people choose it in positive response to it's style. It's often been quoted as friendly and welcoming, and that's not so surprising when most people have only get experience with Times New Roman these days.

If you want to kill Comic Sans, put another friendly But well-designed font on every computer in the world and then redesign as many things as possible to increase its public mindshare. Only once there's a viable friendly-font alternative do people even have a place to go away from CS.

frossie• 16 years ago

But I don't get the impression that folk like that want to kill Comic Sans per se. If you put another "friendly" font out there, the point about not writing probation notices in it would still stand.

tel2• 16 years ago

I'd much rather someone set a probation notice in anything on the list below than in Comic Sans. I'd also rather they set it responsibly, but though you can't fix a sense of style at least you can provide people with better tools.

http://www.fontshop.com/fontlist/alternatives/comic_sans/

(especially MVB Pedestria, obviously, although I don't think most people would consider it in fair running with Comic Sans)

27182818284• 16 years ago

Smooth-scrolling pages are all the rage right now. Fashion trends on the web are fascinating

lambda• 16 years ago

I feel like I need to link to this story whenever Comic Sans is mentioned: http://www.metafilter.com/86695/I-thought-I-was-the-only-one...

nollidge• 16 years ago

Reminds me of an book about grief called Tear Soup [1], which is typeset in Comic Sans. It's actually somewhat appropriate, since it's a large picture book ostensibly aimed at children (but not insultingly - adults can learn something too).

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Tear-Soup-Pat-Schweibert/dp/0961519762...

Semiapies• 16 years ago

The links to resources on better comic fonts and - even more so - dyslexic-friendly fonts make this actually useful.

mhd• 16 years ago

Their comic font alternatives are pretty bad, though. Blambot has a few better ones.

And of course there's "Comic Jens"[1], which is in the same vein, but not as obnoxious for some kind of reason. (And free, available as a web font etc.)

[1] http://www.netzallee.de/extra/comic-jens-en

anigbrowl• 16 years ago

The legal newspaper I read had a 1/4 page advert a few weeks ago along the lines of "__________ Law Firm deeply regrets to announce the untimely death of its senior partner, Mr. _________"

It was, of course, in Comic Sans. Although it seemed rude to inquire, I'm still wondering whether this was some horrendous faux pas by the secretarial staff, or whether it reflected some well-known habit of the deceased and was thus entirely appropriate.

blhack4• 16 years ago

You hate comic sans do you? You know what I hate? Obnoxious jerks trying to make people feel stupid because they didn't use the right typeface when they made a sign to put on the staff refrigerator.

Do you know what the purpose of that sign is? It's not to evoke en emotion, not to convey some abstract message about the corporate structure of the refrigerator, not to let everybody know that the fridge is successful enough to afford some designer who can spend time obsessing over font choices, it's to abstract the thought of "please stop eating my yogurt" into a universally-understandable form.

This type of thing is important if you're Charles Schwab and you're trying to make me feel warm and cuddly about trusting you with my money. The message I'm getting from your ads goes beyond just the words. This is the same as keeping the grass in front of your building trimmed, making sure your staff irons their clothes, that your building isn't in disrepair, that your board members aren't caught doing embarrassing thigns, etc. etc. It's all image. It's 3 forks at dinner. Do you need 3 forks? No, you don't.

Likewise, do you need to worry yourself with things like the typeface that you're using to write a birthday invitation for your 9 year old?

No.

jrockway3• 16 years ago

+1. Comic sans irritates me a little bit, but as much as being irritated by it does. Relax and worry about something else :)

chc2• 16 years ago

> Do you know what the purpose of that sign is? It's not to evoke en emotion, not to convey some abstract message about the corporate structure of the refrigerator, not to let everybody know that the fridge is successful enough to afford some designer who can spend time obsessing over font choices, it's to abstract the thought of "please stop eating my yogurt" into a universally-understandable form.

Are you trying to argue that Times New Roman is not up to that task? Because otherwise I don't see how all this discussion of the sign's purpose makes any difference to the fact that it looks stupid.

Similarly, somebody might be wearing a pair of women's granny panties on his head because his ears get cold, but that does not explain why he would do such a thing when there are earmuffs, scarves and hats readily available.

Groxx3• 16 years ago

Maybe he's in the fashion industry.

blhack4• 16 years ago

>Are you trying to argue that Times New Roman is not up to that task?

No.

>I don't see how all this discussion of the sign's purpose makes any difference to the fact that it looks stupid.

It only looks stupid to a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people who seem to feel as though they should devote a significant portion of their time reminding the rest of the world that they're stupid.

>Similarly, somebody might be wearing a pair of women's granny panties on his head because his ears get cold, but that does not explain why he would do such a thing when there are earmuffs, scarves and hats readily available.

This isn't even remotely similar and you know it. Using Comic Sans instead of Times is more like using a salad fork to eat your steak.

ugh• 16 years ago

The author of the website explicitly states that using Comic Sans for nine-year-olds’ birthday invitations is perfectly appropriate. He does not in any way express hatred for Comic Sans. Please don’t attack a straw man.

I agree with you that ridiculing people for their typographic choices is a bad idea. In many contexts – like the note on the refrigerator – those choices just don’t matter as long as the type is legible. Even when typographic choices might matter it’s better to educate people and not be a jerk. Typography is not taught in school and unless you take an active interest in it you will just not know anything about it.

blhack4• 16 years ago

I guess I'm not specifically speaking to the author of the article, but more to the impression that I get from the design community.

It's the kind of thing that causes people to not even try things because they're so afraid of looking so stupid.

kaerast• 16 years ago

If the point of the sign was simply to abstract the thought of "please stop eating my yogurt" then you needn't put any thought into it at all and leave the default font of Times New Roman. What they've done is actively choose to use another font for some reason.

If it is unimportant which font we use most of the time then why have you set the font family in your website? What made you choose Georgia over Comic Sans?

Fonts and typefaces are important, and Comic Sans is misused frequently.

zb• 16 years ago

It's not to evoke en emotion, not to convey some abstract message about the corporate structure of the refrigerator...

And yet it does those things, even if that is not the purpose. The reason that Charles Schwab pays attention is that it does affect people, and not just the "tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny minority of people" who are paying attention to how.

I sympathise with your position on not making people feel stupid because they're not typographers, but if the alternative is for everyone to blunder through life oblivious to all but the intended consequences of our actions then I can't endorse that either.

A case in point: the example is not a good one since setting a "please stop eating my yogurt" sign on the refrigerator in Comic Sans is an obvious, and probably effective, way to try to make it seem less threatening.

comex• 16 years ago

Hmm: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1237941/comicsanscriminal.png

Groxx3• 16 years ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2028132

They beat ya to the punch.

JonnieCache• 16 years ago

Oh my good lordy lord, this has just taken me back fourteen years to what could be the greatest IRC client ever:

MICROSOFT COMIC CHAT!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat

This was the original source of the font in question. Binaries must be found, VMWare awaits...

joezydeco• 16 years ago

Jerkcity is still using it, and that's good enough for me. HUGHUAHALAGPHMPPH.

newobj• 16 years ago

This grammatical criminal could go "sans" a few apostrophes -- "thanks to it's fun, child-like appearance."

mattdempseycom• 16 years ago

Dear all, my name's Matt Dempsey, I'm the designer and author of ComicSansCriminal.com.

For a bit of context. I'm a Graphic Design student in the second year of my BA. This website formed 1/3rd of a self directed project which consisted of an educational leaflet, a set of stickers and a website. The website is basically a web version of the print booklet, which I focussed least of my effort on. The website was never intended to be seen by a large number of people, it was coded quickly with little thought for web standards because I only expected it to be seen by my tutors for a quick 30 second read.

I do not think I am above anyone else and am not trying to preach. The world spread inappropriate use of Comic Sans is an issue I'm tired of. This is a simple, straightforward website to try and let people know that it's inappropriate to use it in some instances and that there are alternatives. I stated at the end of my project that if I could just get one person to stop and decide whether a font was appropriate before using it as opposed to just using their default Comic Sans, then I would have succeeded and would be happy.

The fact that I've had 80,000 unique visitors in the last 14 hours is something I had never anticipated and was not prepared for. I've corrected the "it's" issue, which I spotted myself soon after launching but was unable to rectify due to being away from the computer with the PSD files on until later today. Please let me know what the other grammar issues are and I'll rectify those too.

At the end of the day I think you guys are taking this a little too seriously. It was supposed to be a bit of fun, a tongue-in-cheek piece of work viewed by a few people that would hopefully make someone stop and think a little. That's all.

Thanks for your feedback, it's been a pretty overwhelming day!

gursikh• 16 years ago

"Comic dogs don't talk in Times New Roman." - Creator of Comic Sans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qefD5YHPeEM

Touche, but then lawyers, doctors, police officers, senatorial aides, and cancer researchers shouldn't be talking in Comic Sans.

pygy_• 16 years ago

Despite the hatred among typophiles, Comic Sans managed to become an ubiquitous font.

I think that we must look beyond the dogma/bigotry and try to understand the popularity of the font.

Its fun personality has been mentioned in several posts in the comments, but comicsanscriminal.com ironically offers another major argument in favor of the font: its legibility.

Comic Sans is popular at elementary school and among dyslexic people because it is easier to read for them. Even though non-dyslexic adults are better at deciphering other fonts, I wouldn't be surprised if the attentional/cognitive load for reading Comic Sans was lower that what's needed for any of the so-called "better" fonts.

This could be scientifically tested easily.

Comic Sans Criminal

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