Comic Sans is a digital typeface from Microsoft Corporation designed to imitate comic book lettering, for use in casual and informal settings. It was designed by in-house designer Vincent Connare in 1994, and a font has been shipped with Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, initially as a supplemental font in the Windows Plus Pack . It has since become one of the most popular Microsoft system fonts.

Because of its ubiquitous use, Comic Sans has become the subject of a campaign by designers to eliminate its use, on the grounds that (as typographic purists claim) it is poorly designed and that its inclusion in the Microsoft system fonts package lends itself to inappropriate use — for example, as a text face in documents or at large sizes in signage.

It is alleged by detractors that the typeface is poorly drawn, virtually equal weight being given to the downstrokes and horizontals, and little thought given to the kerning between character pairs, eliminating any of the informal characteristics of true hand-drawn lettering.

To his defence, Connare claims that it was not originally designed as a typeface, but as a solution to the problem of finding a font suitable for the packaging of children's software.

Comic Sans is used in both print and web comics as a substitute for hand-lettering, although many comic artists prefer to use custom-designed computer fonts instead.

The following paragraph is in Comic Sans or Comic Sans MS if it is installed on your machine. If not, a monospace font is used:

See also

• Kristen (a similar font that comes with Mac OS)

External links

• Ban Comic Sans campaign
• Refutation of criticism by Vincent Connare