VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Jen Gosnell]

Could it be..... the Comic Sans?

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_revenge_of_comic_sans/

Or, well - maybe that's a good start to the reasons, anyway.

Jen
_________________
jen@jengosnell.com
https://www.jengosnell.com
Skype: jen.gosnell
971.258.2448

[Bish]

Interesting point... and an interesting link.

One of my previous roles in life was to design, write and produce training manuals. This was back in the 80s/90s when it was a bit more of a task than it is now. I've been on a number of courses that went into depth on the educational merits of different fonts, and their correct placement within a manual. I think I became, and remain, a bit of a font nazi!

With the WYSIWYG revolution, small-scale publishing became something that was available to everyone. Great... I'm all for providing easy platforms for people to spread their own particular "word", and the logical extension of that is the way that the internet is a platform of (almost) universal suffrage. Technology becomes less of a barrier every year... this is a good thing.

Unfortunately, one of the downsides to giving people a lot of new tools, is that without the proper training (or inherent sensibilities) they can get misused. When DTP became popular and easy there was a whole load of stuff out there that looked like it had survived an explosion in a font factory. Just because you have access to all the fonts... you don't have to use them all on the same page!

Fonts are powerful things. If you've not seen it, then try and see the movie "Helvetica"... it's a real eye-opener for anyone who has any interest in visual presentation and how to convey a printed message.

The blatant nastiness (and historical overuse) of Comic Sans evokes a whole range of negative emotions in me... fonts are powerful things. (I use sub-silver for my VO-BB viewing). I know that our Deirdre has a damn fine eye for design, and I trust that the Comic Sans option is done with some kind of humorous, post-modern irony. Please!

Betcha didn't expect such a response You'd think I'd have something better to do at nine o'clock on a Tuesday morning... but fonts are powerful things. Would I be too sad if I said that I used to design them as a hobby?
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Bruce]

Funny, I think the Comic Sans is fine here on the site, but I don't care for it in e-mails and documents I have to read. Huh.

In fact there are only a very few fonts I like (find easy) to ready copy in such as the serif Times Roman and sanserif Arial or Verdana. I get a lot of Word docs from people with PC's (I'm guessing) in Calibri...yuk. I change it right over to Arial or some such. I'm sure with practice we could read any type style, but I know they've done research on reading speed and comprehensibility with various fonts and that's why we see the same few fonts for most bulk text.

I think the Comic Sans makes it just a bit more relaxed and conversational here than a stiff traditional type, but I'll be glad to see other thoughts, too.


B
_________________
VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Bish]

I'm not totally opposed to Comic Sans... it's absolutely fine when used in a comic's word balloon or something like that where it does a reasonable job of emulating the hand-written text that we are accustomed to seeing. There are better ones, but in this case Comic Sans is ubiquitous and serviceable.

I agree with the comment about Calibri... it almost strikes me as a Microsoft "wannabe" font... MS trying to re-invent the wheel and not quite grasping the concept of it having to be round

I'm even bored with Times New Roman, and will usually always substitute the older-style Garamond. But... my own major time wasting exercise? ... Taking any copy I get and converting it to 14pt Century Gothic before printing. There's just something about that font that floats my boat.
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[jasbart]

I've used a font called BBCasual on my Blackberry for years. It's very similar to Comic Sans. I like it. It makes me feel happy.

Now back to my miserable, misguided life,

Jim
_________________
Jim Barton
Barton Voice & Sound
www.bartonvoice.com

[Jen Gosnell]

Haha, Peter! I appreciate your comments. Glad you liked the article.

I'll have to agree that fonts can provoke strong reactions in me as well. I don't have your background of expertise with them, but I know how they make me feel and don't hesitate to change them if I feel the need! Like Bruce, the Comic Sans doesn't bother me here at all - I actually find it kind of fun.

I wouldn't say that I really *like* Times New Roman, Verdana or Arial, but they're pretty clear to read. For me, with most sane-looking fonts the trick seems to be more about font size than typeface. The smaller something is the more my brain tends to not be able to immediately process it and freak out. I much prefer to be able to prepare a soft copy to my visual liking. Otherwise I get into a position where I tend to need to memorize the script (or music!) to get around that visual hurdle. This is much more of a problem with music than written copy, typically. Maybe that's why the Comic Sans which incorporates what seems like a significant amount of whitespace doesn't bug me nearly as much as Arial, which often seems to me to be all crammed together (and makes me prefer Verdana if we're going down that path anyway).

LOL - I don't know why I have opinions about these things! Maybe I'm just more visually-oriented than I have any formal training to properly support the articulation of!

Anyway, I'll just happily keep reading away with the VO-BB Comic Sans. Makes the life of a self-proclaimed sponge a little easier, if the research quoted in the article is right.

Jen
_________________
jen@jengosnell.com
https://www.jengosnell.com
Skype: jen.gosnell
971.258.2448