Shantell Sans (2023)
Artist Shantell Martin created a free, open-source variable font inspired by Comic Sans, designed for readability and accessibility.
Shantell Martin, a dyslexic artist, collaborated with type designer Stephen Nixon to create Shantell Sans, a typeface based on her handwriting. The font includes variable axes for Weight, Italic, Informality, Bounce, and Spacing, allowing creative flexibility. Martin wanted to make reading and writing feel accessible and empowering, inspired by Comic Sans's playful legibility. The font supports 380+ languages across Latin and Cyrillic scripts and is released under an open-source OFL license via Google Fonts. Early adopters include tldraw, Cash App, and universe.se. Design decisions prioritized everyday usability: metrics align with Roboto, character spacing is wider than average, and similar letters (like b/d/p/q) are differentiated through distinct strokes and serifs.
What HN community is saying
Commenters praised the font's balance of playfulness and readability, with a dyslexic user noting marked improvement over Roboto. The variable axes, particularly Informality and Bounce, drew specific admiration as sophisticated implementations of variable font technology. Several requested a monospace version for terminal use. A recurring theme compared it favorably to Comic Sans while noting it avoids the mockery associated with that typeface. One commenter suggested true variable glyphs with randomized letter variations would better capture handwritten authenticity, though this remains a technical limitation.