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Benedictus XVI

vatican.va

45 pointsptaipale33 comments

The use of Comic Sans really makes the tribute look like an amateur's first try at a home-made photo book. It's already featured on http://bancomicsans.com/

I think the use of Comic Sans is actually one of the lesser crimes on that site.

Yes, the nonstandard link structure (page numbers for navigation, with no ability to use a URL for a link to a specific page) is at least as bad a crime against Web standards as the Comic Sans font on the site. And the copy (text) on the site reads like a Sunday school lesson for little children much more than like a communication for adults about the leader of a multinational organization.

The text is just quotes from the man himself.

Move your cursor to the edges of the book for easier page turning, not very obvious but it is there. At first the page numbering at the bottom threw me.

>99.9% of people see comic sans as a nice-looking, casual font.

<0.1% of people hate it and feel better about themselves for that.

Exactly. Most internet folks fail to realize that the average joe doesn't, in fact, care the slightest about design, as long as the object in question does the job.

The average Joe doesn't know he cares about design. Sure, with comic sans, he'll think nothing of it.

However, Comic Sans is totally overused. Anyone can appreciate that a unique (or "solemn") font will make this piece stand out for the better. I'd love to see some A/B testing here.

The aesthetically pleasing effect of a good font is very much subconscious. Just typeset the same short text in Comic Sans and, say, Zapfino, and ask people which one they prefer. (Not that Zapfino would be a good choice for Vatican's original content here.)

Looks like it's been changed to Times New Roman already

edit: Or actually I guess I don't have comic sans on my system

The Vatican revealed to read HN?

You mean you have the good taste to not actually have Comic Sans on your system. That, my good sire, is something to be proud of. :)

I'm pretty sure OS X or Android (4.2.2 in my case) doesn't include Comic Sans? Correct me if I'm wrong.

If so, I wonder how it got on my system. I can't remember myself ever voluntarily installing Comic Sans.

no comic sans here on Ubuntu I guess, I saw Times New Roman

Always check the sauce:

#book .page{ font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; font-size:12px; line-height:1.5; }

For a Vatican site I found it to be actually quite constrained and subdued.

What "hip" designers don't get is something very simple: Modernism is Protestant, Baroque is Catholic.

Do you want simplicity, cleanness and functionality? Go look for Bauhaus, Ikea and industrial revolution in Northern Europe. Catholicism belongs to another world. It belongs to the aesthetics of excess, over decoration, big European cathedrals, ostentation, Michelangelo and Handel. In case of doubt look at the pictures on that site: gold, purples, reds, churches full of Carrara marble. Like Hindus and Muslims, Catholics preach humbleness but what they find beautiful is actually excess and ostentation.

There is a reason why Italy succeeds on luxury goods (Armani, Ferrari, Murano crystals, etc): they know that bling sparkles and that sparkles fascinate people.

Indeed - Comic Sans is modernist rather than baroque, and this was why I found this font selection slightly odd, or even a faux pas.

Still, you would expect a Vatican site to use a Roman type.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vatican_latin_atm.jpg

Their atms apparently use the same or a similar font.

And have latin as a language option.

So yeah, a self-conscious attempt at maintaining brand identity through pre-industrial skeuomorphic design or the priest in charge of the committee that decides what fonts to use is a 90 year old man who just thinks it looks nice?

Someone in the Vatican's technology team is either very stupid or very, very smart.

I'm coming to wonder if Comic Sans might actually be a valuable tool of propaganda in the hands of a group beset by controversy. It helps endear you to a beleaguered base while distracting your opposition: classic plain-folks and derailing tactics in one neat package. As a bonus, bickering over the choice of a font makes the opposition look ridiculous, which poisons the well against them just a little bit more when they stop being distracted, AND gets them to do all of this work for you.

A part of me likes making up conspiracy theories for fun. Maybe this is just that part of me talking. But it's still fun, and I wonder how feasible it would really be to use Comic Sans this way.

Am I the only one who thinks that a world-wide presence like the Vatican needs a new website?...

I agree that it needs some work now, but I think it was pretty good for the time when it first came out: http://web.archive.org/web/19980130005011/http://www.vatican...

The main Vatican website is much nicer than this; the only thing this has in common with the rest of the Vatican website is the background.

First observations? Lots of photos of babies & kids. Looks almost like a political campaign scrapbook.

Wondering if the use of sans was meant to similarly imply some sort of warmth. The conversational tone of the text, the babies, the font choice. The very idea of having an interactive photo book in the first place. I mean...I can understand people finding it a bit ridiculous. In fact, I self-identify as Catholic and I find myself chuckling, but at least every part of this site feels like a choice.

Oh, also? Looks like there is some sort of catholic analytics service run out of Vatican City? http://analytics.catholica.va/

Let's all give up Comic Sans for Lent.

Well played.

You're supposed to make it a sacrifice; something difficult.

Give up everything except Comic Sans for Lent.

God recommends using Comic Sans. Both the discovery of the "God particle" and the tribute to his official spokesman are published in it. Do not ignore this and use it for everything from now on!

I'm surprised given the background that they didn't go with papyrus.

They did, check out the watermarks on every image haha

Also note that all the watermarks on the images are papyrus

"Grace, lavished upon us by God and communicated through the Mystery of Comic Sans, is an absolutely free gift with which nature is healed"

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