When The Sydney Morning Herald decided to use the typeface Comic Sans for its front page, it drew attention since the font has fans at both ends. Personally, I´m not a big fan of this font, but still think it was a great marketing stunt.

The creator of Comic Sans, typographer Vincent Connare, now responds to the recent criticism with a full statement. This is part of it:

Comic Sans is a typeface I designed when I saw an application called Microsoft Bob, that was aimed at children and new computer users in 1994.

Yes, that typeface I designed and produced it when I worked at Microsoft.

If you remember 1995, you will remember this was the first time computers were affordable. That was because Microsoft Windows 95 was being released and it was made for not just business use but also for consumers.

These consumers, for the first time, had computers being made for them. Companies like Gateway, whose boxes had black and white cow print on them, were now affordable and Microsoft created a Consumer division for these new customers. Applications like 3D Movie Maker used cartoon characters to created movies and its characters used Comic Sans. Cartoon characters such as McZee where created and applications like The Magic School Bus, Creative Writer and Encarta were made. This was the 1990s. Remember Tekton? Neuland? Dead History?

Someone is saying Comic Sans is poorly made? It was made purposely irregular because cartoons use handwritten text that is irregular and their dogs don't talk in Times New Roman.

Comic Sans has no kerning? Yes, very few applications in 1994 used kerning, and it was made for use on the screen for cartoon characters. Kerning is extra information in a font that adds or removes white space between characters so letters that are used commonly together space better. Kerning is only used in graphic design applications or when users are knowledgeable enough to enable it in the application.

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I enjoy meeting people who tell me Comic Sans is their favourite font. They say it with enthusiasm, and that is brilliant. I also enjoy meeting people who don't like it, especially if they are designers because I know secretly they wish they had designed the damn thing.