May 30, 2026
Comic Sans redemption arc?
Shantell Sans
The internet says this playful new font could finally dethrone Comic Sans
TLDR: Shantell Sans is a new open font based on artist Shantell Martin’s handwriting, created to feel playful, readable, and welcoming, especially for people with tricky relationships to reading. Commenters are loving it, with some calling it gorgeous and others saying it succeeds where Comic Sans always started a fight.
A new typeface inspired by artist Shantell Martin’s own handwriting has landed with a surprisingly emotional plot twist: people aren’t just talking about letters, they’re talking about feeling seen. Martin says she created Shantell Sans after years of struggling with reading, later learning she was dyslexic, and wanting a font that felt welcoming instead of punishing. She even name-checks Comic Sans as an inspiration, which in internet terms is basically tossing a match into a very dry forest. But instead of flaming out, the comments came back weirdly wholesome: one user declared it “by far the most beautiful” among Comic Sans-style fonts, while another said their dyslexic daughter gave it a big thumbs up over the ultra-common Roboto.
That said, the crowd didn’t just stop at “pretty font, nice story.” The real nerd excitement exploded around the Google Fonts specimen page, where people became obsessed with the slider that changes how formal or playful the letters look. One commenter practically treated it like a historical revenge arc, cheering the “slow and steady vindication” of old-school font dreamers. Others praised the font as human, warm, and usable in situations where Comic Sans can make people feel like they’re being talked down to. The biggest hot take? Shantell Sans may be doing the impossible: keeping the friendliness people love from Comic Sans while escaping the baggage, the jokes, and the office-email trauma that name still triggers.
Key Points
- •Shantell Sans is a variable typeface designed with axes for Weight, Italic, Informality, and Bounce.
- •Artist Shantell Martin says the font was shaped by her experiences with dyslexia and her desire to make reading and writing feel more accessible.
- •Martin cites Comic Sans as an inspiration because she found it playful and easier to read.
- •Stephen Nixon used Martin’s handwritten alphabet, numbers, and symbols as the basis for creating the digital font.
- •The font is being released under an open font license for free public use and broad distribution through Google Fonts and other platforms.