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Comic neue dyslexia4/8/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Tino, though, found it useful, not funny. Ever since, Comic Sans has largely existed as a punchline. This, however, resulted in the font being installed on the majority of computers worldwide, and by 1998, critics argued Comic Sans was being used far too often - and for tasks that were far too formal for a typeface created with childish intentions. Vincent Connare invented the typeface in 1994 to be included in Microsoft Bob, a series of applications for kids on Windows 95. “Using any font besides Times New Roman wasn’t allowed, but being a rebellious teen, I couldn’t resist the temptation to do something else.”Īnd so, sitting at his mom’s laptop in the kitchen, Tino scrolled through the long list of fonts on offer until he landed on his rebel-without-a-cause weapon of choice: Comic Sans. “Our teacher wanted us to write an essay, and for the first time, we were allowed to do that on a computer, which I was happy to do,” he tells me. Tino, you see, had found beauty in Comic Sans, arguably the most-hated font on the internet. The problem was, it was also sure to be a source of endless derision. I didn't see anything about WHY that's all that would improve with specially designed fonts, though.Five years ago, when he was a 15-year-old sophomore in high school, Tino stumbled upon a revelation that would change his life forever. Their strongest findings seem to be that use of italic fonts in general and Arial Italic in particular should be avoided because they decrease readability (with the Arial version "significantly decreasing" it).Īlso, they note that reading out loud is what would be most likely to improve with specially designed fonts like OpenDyslexic, and that they did not do an out loud test. ![]() Their main conclusion is that font types do have an impact - which is interesting, because we tend to leap straight past "do font types have an impact" all the way to "which ones", possibly partly because it's the easiest thing to change in a document. Or on one of the authors' websites, which also includes the study in a slideshow format: They found that OpenDyslexic did not perform as well as the others mentioned because it caused fixation.Īt least one dyslexic blog noted, as well, that the study doesn't necessarily demonstrate that these commonly used fonts are better it may also be the case that if dyslexic readers have experience using a particular font, it is easier for them to read text in that font in the future. It didn't test Comic Sans, but it did test OpenDyslexic, which was inspired by Comic Sans. No font alone is going to be able to address the bigger factors, although they can certainly help.įor what it's worth, there's information here: about a study that found the four above-mentioned fonts worked well for dyslexic readers. The biggest factor in readability for dyslexics isn't font anyway, it's context: for example, the line height and kerning, the amount of white space on the page, the colors and contrast, and the design grid of the page. There are a ton of commonly used fonts that are great for dyslexia, like Helvetica, Courier, Arial, and Verdana. There's no evidence that Comic Sans works well for dyslexics it appears to be a myth. ![]()
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