Movement to Ban Comic Sans

Started by Avi, April 19, 2009, 07:37:44 PM

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Avi

I was somewhat aware of this for a couple years, but I guess it's gaining momentum.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992364819927171.html?mod=yhoofront

Personally, I don't feel strongly either way.  However, it does get annoying at times when you see it EVERYWHERE.  I dunno what to think, really.
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Trieste

Wouldn't be so much of a problem if Windows would include some more decent fonts in their basic package.

Seriously, there is very little variety, and your average fundraiser is not going to go out and buy a more chic font. They are going to use the cute little comic sans letters.

The Overlord

Quote from: Trieste on April 19, 2009, 08:57:59 PM
Wouldn't be so much of a problem if Windows would include some more decent fonts in their basic package.

Seriously, there is very little variety, and your average fundraiser is not going to go out and buy a more chic font. They are going to use the cute little comic sans letters.

Tri is right, for what you can pay for M$ products, a few more good fonts is not much to ask for, especially when there's really cool ones to be had online for free.


But I read this article shortly before I saw it here, and had to check my rage once again at these genetic rejects that seem to be growing like weeds today. What kind of a societal shitstain must you be if a font pisses you off to the point that you want to start a 'movement' over it?

Hello...McFly, it's a collection of pixels on your monitor or book cover...it's not nuclear winter. I've taken typography courses and I must agree if you truly love or hate the font then you don't know much about typography.

Fact is, many fonts are useless for typography; they're just plain garish, don't really fit well on most things, or are so complex as to be illegible. The best are stylishly distinctive and completely readable, my favorite stock font remains Papyrus; it's used all over now, even in primetime TV series credits.


But again, you start movements over politics. You start movements over religion. You start movements over true innovations in the arts like Impressionism.


You don't start movements over subpar fonts....get a grip people. We really need something like an asteroid impact here to rally us and get it together when a pack of hairless apes are arguing over font styles.  ::)

Trieste

... I, um. I think the movement is a joke, OL... :/

Inkidu

I've been trying to ban Times New Roman for years, come on it doesn't makes sense in name and it's used in every paper known to the western world. ;D

A ten-year-old joke? I wouldn't be surprised if the less humor-inclined among the population took it seriously.
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The Overlord

Quote from: Trieste on April 19, 2009, 11:11:49 PM
... I, um. I think the movement is a joke, OL... :/

Is it? Some other link I saw on it that appeared to be questionable.

crystaltears

Interestingly enough, Comic Sans was one of my favorite fonts for a very long time. I think that changed when I entered college and my English teachers actually started caring about what font you typed papers in more than the word count, at which point I just went to Times New Roman for convenience's sake. That's still what I write my poetry in today. >.>

I have to agree with The Overlord though.. Movements should not be started over fonts. *Chuckles* Perhaps what is written in them, but not the font itself.
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Mnemaxa

It is not a joke.  Sad but true. 

Personally, I couldn't care less, but if they ban it, every two-bit internet anonymous is going to be using it, and it will become a plague the likes of which the internet will never recover from.

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Cosmic Latte

I don't really see how they could ban it at this point anyways, so many companies, websites, and the like use Comic Sans now that it would be like trying to regulate the internet.

Like Crys I used Comic Sans for a long time with my first MSN account, though for the same reason I changed font. Lately I have been using Chaparral Pro for most of my non-school related things.

Lilias

Comic Sans remains one of my favourite fonts. So are Maiandra GD, Sylfaen and Trebuchet MS. Seeing it all around doesn't bother me; perhaps we forget how ubiquitous Arial and Times New Roman are because we simply tune them out.
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purpleartemis00

QuoteWhat kind of a societal shitstain must you be if a font pisses you off to the point that you want to start a 'movement' over it?

Abso-freaking-lutely! I was so shocked when I pulled up my Yahoo! account and this entire font debate was the first story featured. I just don't care that much either way about anything except for genocide and really good literature.

I want to know who first had the shit-fit that started the "movement." Anyone up for kicking some dude repeatedly in the shins?

The Overlord

Quote from: purpleartemis00 on April 20, 2009, 05:23:19 AM


I want to know who first had the shit-fit that started the "movement." Anyone up for kicking some dude repeatedly in the shins?

Yeah pretty much...if it is a legit campaign against a font, a shin-kicking is the very least they deserve.

Inkidu

If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Bliss

I've known about the Ban Comic Sans "movement" for about five years... It's kind of funny, actually. I find it quite amusing. My SO, on the other hand, is on board with it (to a minor degree - it's not like he's going to go protesting signs or anything, he just notices Comic Sans on signs when we're out places, snorts at them, and then we move on with our lives).

Seriously, you guys... how is wanting to shin-kick someone for a "movement" like this really that far off from taking the font seriously enough to start the movement? You're giving it too much Serious Business to get all upset about it.

.....although now, I find myself tempted to start an Anti-Ban Comic Sans "movement." A lot of people would probably miss the irony (Especially in it being an anti-"movement" "movement" instead of a pro-font movement), but since there are so many people with too much time on their hands to do anything but rail against something that doesn't truly have an effect, positive or negative, on anybody's life... it would probably take off. Like that guy that posted "Join Me" as a classified ad and garnered a following.



(No, I really can't NOT put "movement" in quotes in regards to this. It's just too silly.)
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tesseractive

Quote from: Inkidu on April 19, 2009, 11:13:37 PM
I've been trying to ban Times New Roman for years, come on it doesn't makes sense in name and it's used in every paper known to the western world. ;D

It's very compact and still legible, so of course newspapers like it. Allows them to slot their stories in while leaving more rooms for the ads.

As far as Comic Sans goes, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it when used properly, but because there are so few base fonts in Windows and on the Internet, it's abused horribly, and it's a complete eyesore on a lot of websites. Thankfully, the <BLINK> tag has been eradicated, so I can understand why people would move onto Comic Sans.

Personally, I think we should redo the internet entirely in slab serif fonts. ;D
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#15
The problem is that Comic Sans goes for a hand-lettered, informal look, but it's so obviously the ultra-standardized default silly font that any illusion of fun goes out the window. The detractors describe it as being stupidly clownish, but it's not clownish at all. It's more like a Botox smile, or someone who says "My friends say I'm a wild and crazy guy."

It would have been a good font if it weren't so obviously prepackaged. But not prepackaging it doesn't solve the problem, no sirree. If you ban Comic Sans, it'll just be replaced by another "hand-lettered" font - possibly a better font, but better to no avail. That font will be RUINED FOREVER by monotony and the implication of creative carelessness. The only solution would be either to prepackage ten different hand-scripted, informal, silly fonts with Windows, or to not put in any at all.

Papyrus has the same problem, but suffers from being pretty. That clash between "artistic, hand-scripted, and rough-yet-elegant" and "default font" is severe, but the intrinsic beauty of the font makes it even more distracting. It's as if I'm supposed to admire it, but can't, because it's distracting me from the content. When I see "POETRY READING" in Papyrus, I don't think, "Oh, there's a poetry reading tonight!" I think, "What? They used ALL-CAPS PAPYRUS?"

To focus on the font is to miss the problem entirely. The problem isn't fonts. It isn't overused fonts - Garamond and Times New Roman don't meet any objection from me. It's "standardized fonts that are supposed to look like individual/silly/artistic/human expressions."

On a more depressing note, when a boss uses Comic Sans to their subordinates at work, I fear that it may be the only outward face of a little, private death. This isn't the font's fault, it's just how things are.

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Trieste

... I ... I can imagine a poster like that, and if I worked in that office, I would be an unhappy bee.

tesseractive

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Chris Brady

See it's not the fonts fault.  It's PEOPLE ABUSING IT!  Like 90% of stupid problems, it's what happens when humanity gets it's hands on it.
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Bliss

I think I'm never going to see Comic Sans without mentally shifting whatever's written in it into Lumburgh's voice. Hee.
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Only I will remain.
<3 <3 <3

Inkidu

Quote from: Chris Brady on April 22, 2009, 06:26:25 PM
See it's not the fonts fault.  It's PEOPLE ABUSING IT!  Like 90% of stupid problems, it's what happens when humanity gets it's hands on it.
It's a freaking font. You can't really persecute people for unoriginality. :D
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Oniya

Quote from: purpleartemis00 on April 20, 2009, 05:23:19 AM
I want to know who first had the shit-fit that started the "movement." Anyone up for kicking some dude repeatedly in the shins?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans#Ban_Comic_Sans_movement

Quote...complaints focused around a campaign started by two Indianapolis graphic designers, Dave and Holly Combs, via their website "Ban Comic Sans"

Of course, if it's banned, that's going to probably spike the value of all the Beanie Babies that have it on their hang-tags (you know, the things you're supposed to remove before actually playing with the toy.)
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Inkidu

Quote from: Oniya on April 23, 2009, 09:40:22 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans#Ban_Comic_Sans_movement

Of course, if it's banned, that's going to probably spike the value of all the Beanie Babies that have it on their hang-tags (you know, the things you're supposed to remove before actually playing with the toy.)
The Beanie Baby bubble pretty much busted really hard so I sincerely doubt it. Besides I think this a literal violation of my freedom of press.
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Farelaldar

Because of this thread I felt compelled to use Comic Sans in my Offs & Ons.

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