Comic Sans gets a facelift

Craig Rozynski may have taken on the mother of all type design challenges with his creation Comic Neue; a revival of the world’s most hated typeface.

His first type design project, Rozynski’s Comic Neue loses the pretence of unevenness that the original Comic Sans employed. But Rosynski has succeeded at keeping Comic Neue friendly and approachable.

Rozynski’s produced two variants, the second being Comic Neue Angular, which has angular terminals instead of round. With light, regular, and bold weights, as well obliques, there are currently a total of twelve faces. The complete family is free to download right now.

As much as we love to rip poor Comic Sans, one of its greatest aesthetic offenses has little to do with its design. Our collective resentment—which extends well past the design community—has more to do with its misuse, which is why you may want to employ this new incarnation with restraint.

Comic Sans isn’t the only typeface open to misuse of course; is anybody else feeling a growing unease about the proliferating use of otherwise-exquisite Gotham? It’s been spotted on U.S. movie trailers, Discovery Channel and Cartoon Network logos, every other movie poster, and Wendy’s fast food to-go bags. If you are as irked, you’ll appreciate what can happen to any typeface when it’s used without thought, and way too often.

For one last dose of irony, this Wall Street Journal article reports that Comic Sans creator, Vincent Connare, produced his design in response to overuse of Times New Roman.

It will be interesting to see how Comic Neue fares. Since it’s free, it has the potential to get around… but at least for now, it’s not shipping with a popular operating system. Still, as Rozynski says, Comic Neue remains “perfect as a display face, for marking up comments, and writing passive aggressive office memos.”

Don’t miss the expert appraisal tweeted from Connare himself, near the bottom of the Comic Neue download page.

Penina Finger

Penina Finger is passionate about design, real brand and community. She owns the Fantastic Machine design studio and is also a partner at H1Talent. Feel free to say hi, ask questions and debate ideas with her on Twitter @peninasharon.