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Free The Comic Sans Take a look at this picture. It perfectly conveys it’s meaning in patent simplicity. Many would consider an image like this formal: suited for serious atmospheres, a showing of credibility not by breaking from the norm, but from molding itself in it. No one would question an image like this because it is so ubiquitous, appeasing our eyes with it’s bland, banal, and uninteresting premise.



But then there’s this image: a flowering display of creativity in an unorthodox form. It takes the most rudimentary aspects of the photo, the most fundamental details meant for us to see, and exaggerating them in a bombastic display of artful defiance. Yet, so many would rather see the former option for its “professional” look rather than an expressive medium.

This is the case for Comic Sans, a font so vehemently rejected by society, most disregard anything written in it’s script. It’s unbelievable that something so trivial as text font can be so widely disdained, but we do reject this detail because, as its name evokes, it is reminiscent of a comic book, pages of schlock entertainment, not professional literature.

The very font itself is repugnant to our senses, with its jagged curves and smudgy boldness; its every pixel screaming out in chaotic madness. You would never present a business presentation or school paper in this font, it would be sacrilegious to professionalism. It’s something that gets rooted out in elementary school to enforce your credibility. You want your bosses, teachers, and peers to know that you understand format, that you can confine to expected standards that some long dead, long forgotten person established because he didn’t like the appearance of a font; and to an extent, it’s true.

If you are trying to prove to someone you are willing to invest your time and their time seriously in written format, you wouldn’t type in Comic Sans any less than you would scribble to them. But why do we ostracize the font altogether? Why is it that in our creative projects, in our open literary displays we still refuse to embrace this textual opportunity?

This font was birthed from the very essence of creativity, where comic book characters of wild stories and bizarre origins live in colorful panels and relaxed text. So why is it that novels aren’t written in Comic Sans? They explore eccentric treks and myriads of characters just as much as the comic book. Why is it that publishers and authors feel the need to constrict the text to a generic display? Maybe the author feels an insatiable need to prove that they can communicate rich emotion through their diction, buried under bland font that the reader would have to search for, thinking “this guy’s really clever”. But what’s so demoralizing in visualizing with font? Why do we bar ourselves from giving a character the unique detail of another font?

Got a peculiar guy in your book, why not use Comic Sans for their dialogue? I mentioned earlier the wretched effects the font can have, why not add that layer of interaction with the reader to your book? It’s not going to be detrimental to your deeper meaning, and could add a flavor of expression to your work.

Or what about general creative endeavors, like a blog, art project, or even a card? Even if we choose another font than Helvetica or Arial, we still shy away from Comic Sans. Our minds have been engineered to ward off this text like sin, and if we were to ever use it, our typing souls would be forever condemned to font hell.

But that shouldn’t be the case. This font still exists on many programs today for a reason: it’s a vessel for wackiness, for care-free breath and writing. Even when we are typing for pure entertainment, our programmed condition raises red flags at Comic Sans when it can allow for the perfect opportunity for expression. But these aren't works of high importance to your life or to the professional world, but works of art. Why is it that we shun Comic Sans, yet marvel at the equally distorted creations of Picasso? Your creative writing is a construction of art, and while your meaning can be rich with emotions, your aesthetic can additionally apply if you allow it, creating a truly notable piece of uncloseted expression.. We can’t keep treating this text as forbidden in our free life just because our professional life prohibits it. It shouldn’t be considered untrustworthy when so many other fonts are looked at without a second thought.

What could be more ridiculous that typing in a cursive font or writing in Broadway lettering because it looks nice? There are multitudinous fonts for a reason and we singled out Comic Sans for none. If you ever write a creative peace, I urge you to suggest using the text style as a defiance to normality, as an expression of your rebellious nature. We must not hide this side of Microsoft Word or Google Docs because it does not blend with accepted text-society, but should rebel proudly with this misfit text!

Free the Comic Sans!