Last updated on November 26, 2023
One of the common myths I constantly correct in social media and in online forums is that Comic Sans is somehow the “best” typeface for children and adults with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and other disabilities. A blog post caused a small wave of arguments on social media in February (2017):
One well-designed empirical study found that some sans serif types are easier and faster for some dyslexics to read, but comprehension suffered. Sources claiming “Comic Sans is good for | favored by dyslexics” refer to the BDA style guide. British Dyslexia Association (BDA) Dyslexia Style Guide lacks empirical support. Small samples of self-reported preferences (anecdotes), with little or no independent testing. Several websites and even books cite the BDA.
This is a logical fallacy of authority and part of a feedback and citation loop. Empirical studies, not hunches and style guides from non-profits, suggest a different typeface is best: good old Helvetica.
Luz Rello and Ricardo Bazea-Yates (2013) found:
The main conclusion is that font types have an impact on readability of people with dyslexia. Good fonts for people with dyslexia are Helvetica, Courier, Arial, Verdana, and CMU [a Times-lookalike], taking into consideration both, reading performance and subjective preferences.
http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/sites/default/files/good_fonts_for_dyslexia_study.pdf
Another study (A Web-Based Voting Application Study of Fonts for Voters with Dyslexia, 2013) reached similar conclusions:
It is somewhat ironic that the standard font, Helvetica, was preferred by dyslexics over two fonts that were developed with the express purpose of being easy to read for dyslexics. This is certainly not a condemnation of all fonts that have been developed for dyslexics, but it does present a cautionary message to developers: Font modifications that intuitively seem to improve legibility for dyslexics might fail to do so, and might decrease legibility instead.
http://elections.itif.org/wp-content/uploads/AVTI-013-GTRI-DyslexiaFonts-2013.pdf
And another research team found:
As hypothesized, the fonts designed specifically for dyslexia, OpenDyslexic and OpenDyslexic Italic, did not lead to a better readability and in fact, for one participant, caused greater difficulty than other more familiar fonts–a similar finding to that of Burgess’s quick study for her article in The Examiner referenced earlier.
https://goed.american.edu/img/userFiles/2713_77676_Research_Project_-_Final_for_Portfolio.pdf
As a severely dyslexic person with neurological damage, I hate Comic Sans. This “received knowledge” that it is great for people with visual and cognitive challenges bothers me. We should try to guide authors towards challenging their assumptions that lack evidence.
Hating Comic Sans is not ableist, sexist, or racist. The typeface has serious legibility and readability problems. See one excellent technical critique at Design for Hackers:
Personally, I support everyone being able to type and read in whatever typefaces individuals prefer. If you like Comic Sans, then change the font while you type or read online content. If you like Helvetica, use that.
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| Specimen of the typeface Comic Sans. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The digital world is not print. You can change typefaces. You can change their sizes. You can change colors. There is no reason to argue over what you use to type or to read as long as I can use typefaces that I like.
Now, as a design researcher? I’ll tell you that type matters a lot to both the biological act of reading and the psychological act of constructing meaning. Statistically, there are “better” and “worse” type for conveying messages. There are also typefaces that are more legible and more readable. Sometimes, legibility does not help readability, either, as a type with overly distinct letters (legibility) can hinder word shapes and decoding (readability).
My optical character recognization (OCR) applications struggle with Comic Sans. Spaces are added between f and o because the kerning is wrong. The letter m scans consistently as rn (r n) thanks to the incorrect design of the middle stroke. If software struggles, human eyes (and brains) struggle, too.
There really are explanations for why people find Comic Sans annoying. It’s a bitmap font designed for 12-px text (not 12-pt) on lousy 14-inch CRT displays in the era of 800×600 computer monitors. It has lousy kerning, small counters, true monoline strokes, easily confused letters from a distance (i I l 1, e c o, m = rn) and is not meant for long text flows.
A much better replacement is available: http://comicneue.com/
Comic Neue fixes the flaws of Comic Sans. Download it. Use it when you have any reason to use Comic Sans. It’s a lot better. Maybe go back to Dom Casual. Chalkboard is another choice. There are casual scripts that work better than Comic Sans.
What makes a type both legible and readable? Distinct letterforms that enable quick recognition based on word shapes.
A typeface can be a serif or sans-serif face. It doesn’t matter. It can be classic or modern. The face is less important than the letter shapes and their overall conformity to standard word shapes.
Erik Spiekermann, from Stop Stealing Sheep:
“Research has shown that our eyes scan the tops of the letters’ x-heights during the normal reading process, so that is where the primary identification of each letter takes place. The brain assembles the information and compares it with the shape of the word’s outline. If we had to consciously look at individual letters all the time, we would read as slowly as children who have not learned to assume a word’s meaning from such minimal information.” (p. 107)
The guidelines are:
- Ascenders (and descenders) matter to word shape. Ascenders more, since they are at the top.
- Too large an x-height, caps and lowercase blend.
- Too short ascenders and descenders, all words look like rectangles
- Too small x-height, slows reading, too
Sans or serif, what matters most is word shape and distinctiveness. Letters that look too much alike, even as mirrors of each other, are problematic.
Now, if you want a more interesting debate… research has suggested teachers give lower grades and readers find less trustworthy text set in sans-serif type. The same article in various typefaces, the same academic paper, the same letter set in different typefaces reveals a curious pattern: we trust “classic” serif typefaces more than the “newer” sans-serif typefaces.
Use whatever type you want. But know that whatever typeface you select when sharing a text with others will influence those readers.