When the police Comic Sans appeared on our computers with Windows 95 (in 1995) and many of you experienced it as a breath of fresh air compared to more classic but omnipresent fonts like Arial or Times New Roman… The success was dazzling. Too dazzling, this font was now used everywhere and especially on the first websites… until the overdose…
Today, Comic Sans is synonymous with bad taste and is considered frowned upon. Time magazine named it the “worst font of all time” in 2010, and there’s even a website dedicated to helping you use the font wisely (and only wisely).
For its creator, Vincent Connare (you couldn't make this up),
Comic Sans is not one of the best works of art, but conceptually it's one of the best things I've ever done, it's probably the best thing I've ever done.
Vincent created this font while working as a typographic engineer at Microsoft for use in the software Microsoft Bob (which was a commercial failure). The goal he was given was to create a fun font that would make the program's interface more user-friendly.
To break with the usual codes of typography and its boring fonts, he took inspiration from the handwritten writing found in comics like Batman or Watchmen (hence his name taken from Comic Books).
Ultimately, Comic Sans was not used in Bob because it was not ready in time for the software's release... however, it was included in the "Plus" version of Windows 95 and also included by default on all new Macintoshes starting in 1996.
In the video below (in English), you can find the whole story of Comic Sans, told by Vincent Connare himself. He seems pretty cool and justifies the creation of this much-maligned font quite well. Enough to change your mind about Comic Sans!
Article updated on January 6, 2025 by Byothe
