Instagram inexplicably adds a Comic Sans-like font to Stories

Depending on how you about feel certain fonts, your Instagram Stories experience is either about to get a lot better or, more likely, a lot worse. That’s because Instagram has introduced four new fonts. You have new stencil and serif options, as well as one that has an uncanny resemblance to Comic Sans. While it’s not an exact match for the world’s most hated font, it’s close enough where it’s almost certain to elicit many of the same reactions. Never mind, it already has.

But before you go complaining to Instagram about its typography choices, there’s likely a good reason the company decided to add a Comic Sans-like font. As Mashable points outs, Comic Sans is considered one of the easier fonts for people with dyslexia to read. The irregularity of each individual letter makes words easier to parse. Anytime a developer can make their product more accessible, that’s a good thing.

Former Microsoft typographer Vincent Connare created Comic Sans in 1994. Pulling inspiration from the lettering in comic books like Watchmen, Connare envisioned people using the font for informal documents and children’s books. As these things usually go, people and the internet had different ideas. At one point, someone even created a Comic Sans typewriter.

However, for all the ways people have misused Comic Sans, Connare has no regrets about designing it. “The level of hatred was amazing and quite funny,” he told The Guardian in 2017. “I couldn’t believe people could get so worked up about a font.”

You can check out all the new fonts by adding a text to a Story and then using the interface element that appears above the keyboard to switch between them. Unless you run an account dedicated to Doge memes, remember to use the font sparingly and tastefully.