Meanwhile, the letterforms of Helvetica are rationalized from predecessors, without apparent influence of a drawing tool. The ironic thing about this distinction is that Comic Sans is actually influenced from a drawing tool: a round, felt-tipped pen or marker but, the stroke of this tool is unmodulated. If you squint your eyes, you’ll notice that there is a disproportionately heavy area where these strokes meet on Comic Sans, while Helvetica’s weight is more evenly distributed. This helps to give the letter a more even visual weight. For example, notice how the stroke on Helvetica gets thinner where the shoulder meets the stem on this letter n. Though the strokes of Helvetica’s letterforms are unmodulated, some adjustments are made to improve its legibility. The forms of most sans-serif fonts are not influenced by drawing tools. As printing was developed, the letters created mimicked scribed letters, and – while they eventually developed their own forms – printed letterforms almost exclusively had modulated strokes until sans-serif type was popularized in the early 1800’s. Before printing was available in the West, scribes lettered Bibles beautifully and patiently by hand, using a flat-tipped pen, held at a fixed angle, which influenced the form of those letters – resulting in a modulated stroke. This modulation is a result of Garamond’s form being derived from that of scribed letters. Comic Sans also has an unmodulated stroke. ![]() This sample shows how Helvetica’s form differs from that of Garamond, which has a modulated stroke. They both have a relatively unmodulated stroke, meaning that the thickness of the strokes on the fonts don’t change throughout the stroke. ![]() Both Have Unmodulated Strokesīut they have their similarities as well. To illustrate the poor fundamentals of Comic Sans, I will compare it to Helvetica, which is such a beloved font, that there’s a movie – about typography – named Helvetica.įirst of all, I should acknowledge that comparing these fonts is a bit apples to oranges (which are both fruits, mind you), in that they both convey completely different moods: Helvetica looks strong and serious, and Comic Sans is usually used in situations where one wants to look playful and casual.
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