There are times when you need a cute font. Maybe you are creating a comic book. Maybe you want to appear original. Maybe like one of my readers, you have a boss who asks you to redo your presentations in Comic Sans. The bottom line is that we must vow to never use that font. There are solutions. I have compiled ten different fonts that will serve as replacements in your logos, reports, presentations or comic books. The cool part is that they are all free. Before using them be sure to check the user license agreement. Some are completely free. Some are free only for personal use.
First of all, this is what Comic Sans looks like.
I made it look a little more attractive by changing the blending options in PhotoShop, but don’t be fooled. Grab another cheese puff, and get ready to try some cute but still cool fonts.
1. Antipasto
Antipasto is one of my favorites. I often use it for PowerPoint presentations. It is rounded and sans serif. Yet it maintains a classy feel. It is the mullet of free fonts (business in the front, party in the back). You’ll find this one at dafont.com. It is free for personal use.
2. Sansation
Sansation is professional with a capital “P”! It actually serves as a really good replacement for Antipasto. It maintains that simple professionalism but throws a couple of surprise crazy letters in there. I’ll let you install to find out. The font comes in three weights: light, regular and bold. The cool part is that this one is 100% free! This means you can do more than just pretend to use it. Go here to get this one.
3. Qlassik Bold
Qlassik is qrazy with a lowercase “q”. I’m sorry about that. It seemed like if I didn’t, someone else would have. This one reminds me of a friendly ghost. As you can see it has some very unique letters combined with some very normal letters. This would probably appease a Comic Sans requesting boss. You can get it here. It is listed as donationware. Whatever that means… I guess you should go donate to the author if you love it and need to use it for a professional project.
4. Milocha
Milocha impresses me beyond all reason. It is so clean and definitely has the rounded edges needed for children themes or candy bar logos. This one is also free only for personal use at dafont.com. I’m trying to figure out who uses fonts for personal reasons. Teenagers, Yovillians and aspiring email users. There, I figured it out.
5. Olijo
As you can see, Olijo is similar to Milocha. For instance, they both use the Phoenician alphabet and are white. The thing Olijo brings to the table is completely rounded dots. It’s very attractive. I also really like the way the tops of the hard line letters slant up to the right. It gives it a winter mountain vibe. Use this for your new light beer logo or writing to airline executives. You can get it completely stinking FREE here.
6. Yiggivoo
Yiggivoo has the benefit of being amazing. The other fonts in this set are jealous. It almost looks alien. Perhaps if you used just the special characters when you type, it would look even more alien. I appreciate the wide openings in the more open letters. It also calls to remembrance the famous structure in St. Louis. It comes with four font files. The extras are italicized, 3D and 3D italicized. It’s listed as Public Domain, so have at it.
7. I Hate Comic Sans
This is just funny. The name of the font is “I Hate Comic Sans”. He he. Anywho, it’s attractive and useful. Download it here. It’s completely free. Use it in your header. If someone loves the font, give props to the artist.
8. Comic Andy
This is pretty close to Comic Sans. It has all of the rounded baby font feel to it. The strokes look more controlled and intentional though. This is why you are allowed to use it. It’s a little harder to work with fonts that are hollowed out, but I think it looks good as is. If you need this to not be outlined, just do it in PhotoShop. Place your text. Rasterize the layer, and fill in the color. Or you could just adjust the inner glow or color overlay in the blending options. If none of that makes sense, leave a comment. I’ll make a new tutorial on it. This font is also completely free! Yay! Get it at dafont.com.
9. Little Ryan
Little Ryan is everything that most people are looking for when they use Comic Sans. It is playful, rounded and original. The only difference is that Comic Sans is none of those things. Well, it is rounded. I use Little Ryan for a lot of different things — all personal projects, because this font is available free for personal use. It also comes with a really cool lucky bonus font!
10. Backlash
This final font is the farthest from Comic Sans of the set, but it’s really cool as far as cutesy comic fonts go. You can find this one at 1001freefonts.com.
That’s the best I could do in a few days. If you find better ones, leave a comment, and let us all in on it!
Final Thought
If you have a friend who is a chronic Comic Sans user, forward this post to them. You CAN change the world one tweet at a time!