Comic Sans Exists Because it’s Better Than Times New Roman
Low bar. I know. Time’s New Roman isn’t exactly my favourite font face. Comic Sans, though? Well, I think it’s pretty good at what it does.
I read Absurd Pirate’s post on Comic Sans and thought I’d share some history about Comic Sans. Comic Sans is so ubiquitous that it’s taken on its own life—one invincible to the critiques of typographic design. And, frankly, its own history was meant exactly for that.
Comic Sans exists because software for kids needed a fun, readable, utilitarian font face.
Vincent Connare designed Comic Sans because he was working on software for kids that included a graphic of a dog with a speech bubble, and the text was in Times New Roman—a horrible choice for a fun, cartoon environment.
You can read Connare’s full explanation of how Comic Sans came into being on his blog.
The short story is that the software looked bad with Times New Roman, but it shipped that way anyway because it was too late by the time Comic Sans was ready.
Later, Comic Sans was shipped with Windows 95 and then even used by Apple before they came out with their own font Chalkboard.