Comic Sans was designed in 1994 to make a computer program feel less formal, drawing on comic book lettering

pop & funWikipedia1994 · USA

Comic Sans was designed in 1994 to make a computer program feel less formal, drawing on comic book lettering

the gist

Comic Sans was created in 1994 by Microsoft designer Vincent Connare, who thought the formal Times New Roman lettering in a beta of Microsoft Bob looked wrong for a program meant to introduce children to computers. He sketched a casual typeface based on the hand-lettering in comics he kept in his office, including The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. It missed Microsoft Bob, and it reached the public when other Microsoft programs adopted it. It later became a default font in several Microsoft products and was pre-installed on Windows and macOS.

so what

Comic Sans became one of the most widely used and most mocked typefaces in the world, showing how a font's tone can shape how people react to text. Its story shows how small design choices in everyday software are made by individual designers, often under deadline pressure. The later Comic Sans Pro update was released on April Fools' Day, which fueled the idea that the font was a joke.

fun fact

Comic Sans was designed partly from lettering in Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, two landmark comics.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗