Fonts are the clothes that our words wear. Many educators consciously chose Comic Sans because it is one of the few fonts available natively on both Mac and PC that features a'real a'—that is, a 'a' that is a circle and stick (rather than the one used in my current font!). It also has many other circles and sticks for making letters unique. The a in normal is not a circle and stick but rather a slightly hooked shape with a curved top. This letter was originally called the "antique spelling" of 'a' because it was used mostly in old books and documents. The modern 'a' came into use around 1590-1600 and completely replaced the antique 'a'. Normal 'a' does not look like this:            It's more like the half moon you see at the beginning of some words such as can't or man. However, this letter has several different variations used by various writers and printers throughout history. These variations are called "forms" of the letter and they are used to make words look nicer or specifically match surrounding letters. For example, there is a form called "straight 'a'" which doesn't have any curves anywhere on it.