What is wrong with Comic Sans?

Question

There's [a great TEDxExeter talk](http://youtu.be/Ia55clAtdMs) by a colleague of mine, Simon Peyton-Jones, about the recent advances in the English lower school 'computer science' curriculum. Like all of his slide decks he uses Comic Sans throughout. Depressingly, though inevitably, one of the YouTube commenters berates him for the font choice, stating that his use of Comic Sans is "the design equivalent of putting a giant image of a middle finger on the screen; an insult to education". This prompts a further comment that points to 41:32 in [another of Simon's talks](http://www.infoq.com/presentations/education-IT-CS) where Simon is asked by an audience member why he uses Comic Sans. Here is Simon's reply:> This is a very funny question, "Why use Comic Sans?" So, all my talks> use Comic Sans and I frequently see remarks like 'Simon Peyton-Jones,> great talk about Haskell but why did he use Comic Sans?' but nobody's> ever been able to tell me what is wrong with it. It's a nice legible> font, I like it. So until somebody explains to me ... Ah, I understand> that it's meant to be a bit naff, but I don't care about naff stuff, I> care about being able to read it. So if you have got a sort of ...> some rational reasons why I should not then I'll listen to them. But> just being unfashionable? I don't care.Simon is talking off-the-cuff here, so I think by "rational" he means affecting legibility, reading speed, comprehension, and things like that. Are there any studies relating fonts across those kind of measures? If so where does Comic Sans come in the ranking?(N.B. I cannot help thinking it is a good design choice that he's made. He has deliberately chosen a font that no-one versed in the design of slides would choose. It suggests, in my mind at least, a kind of authenticity; but the argument between brand adherence and authenticity is one I keep losing.)

Answer 1

Great question! Unfortunately, since any of the "arts" are subjective, once something is "canonized" as acceptable or not, it just sort of sticks. Comic Sans has been canonized as undesirable, unfortunately. Finding an objective reason as to why may be difficult but a simple objective reason may just be because consumers don't find it professional enough. Especially with the variety of "handwriting" fonts available, Comic Sans doesn't tend to hold up to current trends wanted by businesses for their marketing brand. However, researching the article titled "Why You Hate Comic Sans." That article may help provide some insight into a technical reason why the font has its reputation. Hope this helps!