David Hurst

‘I know what will brighten up this spreadsheet’, thinks the office worker, ‘I’ll make all the text Comic Sans. That will add a bit of fun to an otherwise dull document and show everyone I have a sense of humour…’.

No, actually. You’ll just look a bit of a twat mate.

The Comic Sans MS typeface has absolutely no place in professional business, unless you particularly want your business output to look slapdash and distinctly amateurish. This font is a plague of websites and local government offices across the land, and I cannot understand why.

A few months back, I walked past an architects office in Cornwall, who had a huge sign outside proudly displaying their company name. What typeface did they choose? You guessed it. I would have loved to have been at that board meeting. Lots of sensible, experienced architects nodding sagely as someone suggests writing the company name in a font that looks like a drunk child’s handwriting. ‘Yes’, they say, ‘that’s the image we would like to convey - nothing says “architecture” like Comic bloody Sans’.

What’s wrong with a nice sans-serif font I ask? If you want to be a bit different and not go for boring old Arial, why not consider Helvetica, Verdana, Century Gothic, Geneva or even Tahoma? And, for a pleasant alternative to Times New Roman, how about giving Georgia or Garamond a whirl. Just whatever you do, please put the Comic Sans down. Leave the computer alone and back away slowly. No-one is even remotely amused by your comedy type face or your wild colour choices.