An April Fools’ joke which turned out being real.
http://typophile.com/node/80711

The lower case italic “a” could have been more disambiguated from “o”.
This is a face which, when all is said and done, has achieved some quite serious uses, in part due to its excellent readability.

What can I say? It's... unpleasant. The swashes look stiff, they don't blend with the default glyph set.

Second, as far as I know Comic Sans has a popular use. Do people who set their texts with Comic Sans use swashes? I doubt it. This feature will probably stay buried. I like Comic Sans as it is.

If I could have written this text in swashed Comic Sans I'd have been able to convey my feelings more effectively.

The question on everybody's mind is: will Apple rise to the challenge and extend Chalkboard?

hhp

Do people who set their texts with Comic Sans use swashes?

Probably not yet, but they will quickly learn to misuse and possibly even use this feature; especially since it appears to be a separate font rather than an OT 'swsh' feature.

André

it appears to be a separate font rather than an OT 'swsh' feature

Good point. I just hope people leave behind the frivolous Comic Sans fashion before they notice the swash adjunct. But by that I'm just willing to forget that, precisely with this expansion, Microsoft is trying to trigger a second wave.

Wave? It was a tsunami, and most of the debris is still waiting to come back to shore.

hhp

To agisaak:

No. It's not a separate font, just an OT 'swsh' feature. So I doubt many people will find and use them.

No. It's not a separate font, just an OT 'swsh' feature. So I doubt many people will find and use them.

Well, that's probably a good thing (I was basing my assumption purely on the file names of the attached images).

André

I actually think this is excellent. Now I can speak in Sarcastic, and Ultra Sarcastic!

Thank you MS, I was running out of skeets.

n.

The swash italic is the lovely girlfriend Bookman Swash...

I think this is very good for a comic font.

The funny thing is that 99.99% of the people who use Comic Sans will never, ever hear of this and if they do, won't know how to access the new glyphs.

>The funny thing is that 99.99% of the people who use Comic Sans will never, ever hear of this and if they do, won't know how to access the new glyphs.

That's why it's called Comic Sans Pro :-)

PS. Many of the alternates, as well as the true italics, are in the Windows 8 version of Comic Sans.

> PS. Many of the alternates, as well as the true italics, are in the Windows 8 version of Comic Sans.

Yeah, what I said...

The day we see church bakes sale signs with alternates and swashes you can fly me out to Redmond so I can buy you a beer.
:o)

Of course, when that day comes it will be nothing but swashes and alternates.

... So my employer is about to upgrade our system to to Windows 7 ( :o/ yeah... ) I guess we miss out on this version until we get upgraded to Windows 8 in about - oh, 9 or 10 years.

I guess I should have read the first post :-) as noted we updated all the "web fonts", making them more relevant and useful on the CSS OpenType enabled web. If Office starts using these in templates then maybe we will see them in print too.

As for upgrades I still believe it's all been downhill since OS6.

LOL... and what a pleasure it's been not riding uphill against the gravity of the OS all these years. :)

"...making them more relevant and useful on the CSS OpenType enabled web..."

Can't wait! So, these new fonts have licensing allowing any user to host and link to them? And there are WOFF versions available from MS or do we convert them ourselves?

>Can't wait! So, these new fonts have licensing allowing any user to host and link to them
>And there are WOFF versions available from MS or do we convert them ourselves?

Sorry conversion to WOFF isn't currently allowed under the Windows EULA. On the plus side most of these fonts (or equivalents) should be available via our licensing arrangement with Ascender/Monotype, if not now, then in the near future (once enough browsers support OT).

We posted demos by Font Bureau, Font Shop and Monotype that show both OT support coupled with @font-face delivery. Link here... http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/01/09/css-corner-using-the-whole...

SD: "Sorry conversion to WOFF isn't currently allowed under the Windows EULA"

Oh.

SD: ":-) as noted we updated all the "web fonts", making them more relevant and useful on the CSS OpenType enabled web."

(Except for the format and licensing.)

SD: "...We posted demos..."

I know, and we are are happy to support OT features even if we(btype), need to write a per-feature line of CSS for each browser and! put a different font file on the stack to suit each browser/OS combination, and! put a different naming structure on font families to suit each browser, and &tc.

But, I'm imagining millions of windows users happily working along in the integrated world of windows and the web 'til finding a web publishing barrier with the dandy new features of the fonts they are accustomed to doing with whatever they like.

So, and this is not the first time I've thought this even though it's not my problem — I'm concerned for the safety of Comic Sans.

Thank you for your concern. I had similar worries about @font-face, but I've found that most web site publishers seem to be able to work out what they can and can't do with our fonts, and the hosting services have done a good job of helping guide site owners along the right path.

The inclusion of OpenType features in the web fonts will help web site designers understand what OpenType can bring to their content and inevitably they'll seek out providers like The Font Bureau to provide alternates above and beyond the web safe options.

Can you please put back the original Euro! The Greeks are pissed off with the new one and they need a laugh.