I realise there are plenty of more important things to be upset by, but over the last few weeks I've become increasingly annoyed, to the point of hatred, with the font Comic Sans.
I was determined not to gripe too much about my new job, but I seem to have landed in a company obsessed by this font. It is used unsparingly on posters, leaflets and websites. I'm going to make it my mission to eradicate it. But they aren't alone - it crops up everywhere, although thankfully Blogger doesn't offer it as an option.
I can only assume my company uses it because they think it suggests a fun, friendly and quirky nature. Let me disabuse them of those notions right now.
Do we really want to appear fun? I think not. How about ridding ourselves of the public-sector jargon-speak first?
Friendly? Certainly, but accessible is part of friendly, and the dreaded front isn't actually that easy to read, online or off.
Quirky? Again, we are hardly a quirky organisation, but Comic Sans is so ubiquitous, you distinguish yourself more by not using it. I understand we don't want to look too corporate, but there is a middle ground between that and looking like amateurs.
Personally, I'm rather a Tahoma kind of girl. Clear, easy to read, the thinking person's Arial.
And while I'm on, I'll be removing all of those exclamation marks too. We are not an over-excitable teenager on text.
8 comments:
I'm with you on the font war. It always looks a bit child-like to me, as if I've inadvertently slipped into playschool. The font equivalent of novelty comic ties on men, I think.
Hope the jobs going ok apart from that? It's still early days though.
I'm not quite so down on the font, although I agree we do see rather a lot of it...DEfinitely agree with you over the exclamation marks though...always far more effective when used sparingly.
I wasn't sure which font comic sans was and had to check...I hate that one too and I'm with you it's hard to read...
If you want a ready excuse not to use it, cite the usability/accessibility reasons as its a serif font whereas arial/tahoma are not...bad for dyspexics, old people, flickering pc screens etc etc
dyspexics? Not a bad joke, honestly...sorry mean't dyslexics...obviously the thought of comic sans was enough to put me off my typing...
I'm more of a Century Gothic kind of girl, failing that, Arial is always reliable.
I am pleased to hear you're taking out the exclamation marks. I delete them every chance I get and my MD puts them right back. I find it more than a little bit irritating!!!!
"I find it more than a little bit irritating!!!!"
Roses how COULD you (even in jest) ?
You know me...just got be awkward.
:-)
Would now be a bad time for me to say I have fond memories of Comic Sans?
I should point out this is probably more to do with schooldays & over excited teenager type stuff than the actual font itself.
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