Sans Comic Sans

Little did Vincent Connare know that a whimsical font he designed 15 years ago would become the target of a global campaign to have it banned, reports Emily Steel in the Wall Street Journal (4/17/09). That font would be none other than Comic Sans, which Vincent whipped up in about a week’s time while working on a children’s software program called Microsoft Bob. Vincent thought that Times Roman just didn’t fit with the program’s cartoon graphics and, inspired by a couple of comic books he had kicking around, designed Comic Sans.

Someone at Microsoft thought the font was pretty cool and "included it as a standard typeface in the operating system for Microsoft Windows." The font’s casual, kind of goofy personality caught on quickly, and has since turned up almost everywhere — to a point where, in 1999, Holly Sliger, and her husband, Dave Combs, started a movement to stop it (link). Holly and Dave began their campaign by contacting Vincent and asking him if it was okay if they used "his photo for stickers, T-shirts and coffee mugs," for a campaign to promote "typography awareness."

Vincent was amused by this, and gave his blessings, until he realized that Holly and Dave were serious and turned his image into a Comic Sans punching bag, of sorts. The couple agreed to remove his visage from their materials, although Vincent says he understands the antipathy for his creation. He’s also proud of it, and sometimes uses it in his own PowerPoint decks at industry conferences. He’s even toying with the idea of creating a "I Love/I Hate Comic Sans" picture book with Holly and Dave. The one thing he’s not doing is getting rich from any of this "since Microsoft owns the font."