So I've recently started making my comics in flash and to letter them I've been useing the Comic Sans MS font it has available (I capitalize everything because I heard that's better). It seemed relevant and visually appealing enough. However, I've recently been told that's a horrible mistake and Comic Sans MS is a hideous font to use for comics.

Is that true? Have I been making a horrible mistake? If so, what should I do? Should I try to download another font from somewhere? Should I re-letter the past comics I've made because Comic Sans MS is really that bad? What font would provide a suitable alternative? Or is Comic Sans MS not actually that bad and I could stick with it?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

I dont care as long as a font is readable. My preferred fonts to see for a comic are:

- Arial
- Verdana
- Comic Sans

Keep it simple.

However the reason why they say comic sans is a bad font because in the webcomic community they think that people who use comic sans font are 'cheap shots' or something.

Its like making a comic and using sprites or copyrighted characters or just making a gradient or blank background for no good reason.

Before I forget the name of it, I use a font called digital strip and I got it from Blambot: http://www.blambot.com/fonts.shtml This link will take you directly to their font section, and the rules are simple. If an offering has a red dot beside it then that is a pro font and you have to pay to purchase it. If the font doesn't have that red dot beside it then it is a free font and you can download it and do whatever you want with it. Just be sure to follow the instructions for making your font available for your software application. Anyway Digital Strip is a free font gotten from Blambot and I use is for all my dialogs.

You can click on my avatar and then on my Superior Beings strip to see what it looks like. I recommend Digital Strips but there darn well other free fonts offered by Blambot and other font companies that look just as good.

That said, in my opinion there is absolutely nothing wrong with using Microsoft's Comic Sans MS font. The only problem is that many web cartoonists and some non artist fans are font snobs and automatically dislike anything that was once popular. Once upon a time Microsoft's Comic Sans MS font was all that was available for web cartoonists, and back then it worked just fine.

Really, it is only some artists and some fanatical fans that notice minute font differences anyway. The average fan isn't going to be able to distinguish off-hand between Digital Strip and the Comic Sans MS font.

So NO! Do not waste your time going back over your stuff and stripping out the old font and replacing it with something new. If you do decide to change dialog fonts then just start from now with whatever you download. Just plain don't waste your time making things unnecessarily hard on yourself. The fanatical nitpickers just aren't worth catering to.

Truth to tell, the only reason that I use Digital Strip instead of Microsoft's Comic Sans MS font is that I enjoyed the process of font shopping and - very slightly - preferred its looks over Microsoft's Comic Sans MS font. The thing to keep in mind though is that font preferences are wholly subjective in nature and a hundred fans of your work would have a hundred opinions regarding any font you selected. Therefore concentrate on pleasing yourself first!

PS: laughing warlock I just looked at your stuff, and in my opinion your font looks fine. What I would do, however, is to make your bubbles thicker than they are now in your Fantasy Authority strip, so that they are a definitive barrier between your art work and your dialog. I would make the balloon walls at least two to three pixels thicker than they are now. The balloon thickness looks about right to me in your Laughing Warlock strip though.

Oh man, that's a lot of useful advice! I can't say I was expecting so much valuable feedback ^^;. I really wasn't going to ask for any critique on Fantasy Authority until I hit 10 strips. Otherwise, I'd look like the n00b trying to whore out his new strip that hasn't gone anywhere yet (Besides, I opened it with a pretty cliche cliff hanger.). However, I am glad you took a look at it to provide some critique. I'll defiantly take your advice on the word bubble thing, but I'm afraid that's something that would be impossible impossible to change in older. I deleted the original fla files ^^;. Guess I'll just have to be careful from now on.

Regarding the font, its' good to know that I haven't been making a grievous error this whole time. I really like that font site you showed me and I'll try and go font shopping some time. I don't know if I'll change it you're saying that it looks fine now, but I might. Either way, thanks!

You are welcome laughing warlock. One thing that I really like about DrunkDuck is that a beginner is generally treated with just as much respect and courtesy as an old pro. I'm not a pro, by the way - although I do qualify as a geezer.

I thought about my advice to you and I think I want to qualify it just a bit. While I have no problem with your use of MS comics sans font this DOES NOT mean that my opinion is necessary gold in this regard. I believe that even for the average reader, tiny shifts in such things as fonts do make a bit of a psychological difference.

Here's my new recommendation. Go and look at a handful of works by other artists that you really like and study their font selection and compare its impact to your traditional font. You see, as I thought about it I realized that the font you use is rather thinner in its line width than the font I use. Some people may legitimately dislike the look of the comic sans ms font simply because it may look a bit spidery to them, and this WOULD be a legitimate criticism.

Anyway, now you know where to find other good fonts if you want to experiment. Really, it's generally NOT a pain in the rump to add new fonts to your database and switch between them.

I hope this second shot of advice serves you better than my first chunk - well-meant though it was.

CharleyHorse

CharleyHorse speaks a lot of truth, as usual.

I think the hate for Comic Sans probably comes mostly from the fact that a) it's a Microsoft font and Microsoft is Satan Incarnate and b) since it's a font any Windows machine will have, anyone who uses it will at least be suspected of not having put much thought or effort into their lettering.

Beyond that, it's just one of a million internet hate bandwagons. There's even a Ban Comic Sans Website . There's nothing wrong with the font in and of itself, and for God's sake, don't go back and re-letter your old stuff. Look through Blambot and see if you find something you like better. That's really all that matters. If Comic Sans works for you, there's no reason to stop using it.

Personally though, I think it's fugly. But that's just me.

Yes, you are making a horrible mistake wit da comicsanz...

Letter-o-matic is a nice font for comics and it's free at Blambot. Can't beat that price. It's nice enough to be legible yet it doesn't make you look like an obnoxious chode or an utter n00b IMO.

Comic Sans is a horribly generic font, hence the hate. Since it's creation, everyone and their mother uses it for signs and typed projects and it's really, really annoying. It's true that the average reader won't be able to tell the difference, but people who actually READ a wide variety of comics will be able to tell. There's very minute things about comic sans that makes it unappealing (including poor use of negative space and the style of the letters) and I usually vomit whenever I see it.

But that doesn't mean you should change because you'll only be hated by a small group. However there's tons of free fonts available from Blambot, Comicraft, and font.de. Why you would settle with a generic font over a font specifically designed FOR comics is beyond me, but anyone who uses comic sans is just lazy in my eyes.

I used to use digital strip which is one of the better free comic fonts but now I either hand letter or I use my own custom made font based off my handwriting. You can learn the subtle art of font making here: http://www.myfirstfont.com/

yes, i am a font snob.

I can deal with Comic Sans...but a snazzy, new font that goes with your comic type is more noticeable. =P

The only problem with Comic Sans as far as I'm concerned is that it makes your comic look less professional, and like spacehamster said, it looks lazy. Now, it's not like I turn my nose up at a comic with CS; for the most part, if I like a comic I'll read it, no matter what the lettering is like. But the fact of the matter is that a comic will simply look better with a more comic-like font, like Digital Script or LetterOMatic.

Co-sign on the above.

Well, I've already started useing Comic Sans. I think a major jump right at the beginning would be bad. For now I'll use Comic Sans with dialog and digital strip with narration. From there, if I don't see a tremendous problem with Comic Sans, I'll keep useing it. If I do, I'll look for a good place to change dialog fonts.

don't use comic sans. go to blambot and find one of their speech text fonts. I think they're free and they are MASSIVELY superior to comic sans.

Take it easy on the necroposting, man :] Make sure it's a topic worth reviving and you're contributing something new (blambot was already mentioned, for instance)

I think using comic san in a comic, is like using that "halo" thing on photoshop. Or putting GIF on your website background. Not pretty, not professional and it's usually the most annoying people who uses it.
Not meaning you're one of them, thought :)

I was originally going to use comic sans MS for my comics, but in the end I used Calibri, cuz I just like it lol it's readable and not overly fancy and just seemed to fit my comic's style. I think the most important things are whether the font is readable, and whether it suits the genre/style of the comic. You wouldn't want to use a really cute font in a horror comic with loads of gore, for example :)

I use comic sans....lol

It's legible and kind of quirky at the same time. So I like.

Just pick something you like and ignore the people who aren't reading because of your font; you don't want them anyway (unless of course they're not reading because they can't read the font...then you should listen). ^_^

http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=3599