The tone of the comic tends to be absurdist and dark, with the punchlines often being both humorous and disturbing. Horne said that the two were more collaborative when they lived in the same city and the process for making the strips changed when Horne moved away. The photographs for A Softer World were taken by Horne, then sent to Comeau for text. The strip grew out of work by Comeau that started in 2001 which used magazine about royalty as the illustrations. The photos do not illustrate the text directly, instead presenting a similar tone, or being in conflict. Short text is added over the photographs. The three panels are made up of photographic art, either a series of three photographs, or one photograph that is spread over multiple frames, or repeated with different crops and zooms.

With occasional exceptions for double-length strips, each comic is three panels long. Between 20, science fiction-themed strips of A Softer World were also produced and published on Tor.com.

It appeared in The Guardian for a short time until a change of editors caused it to be removed. With the launch of the website, the comic gained wider recognition, most notably when Warren Ellis linked to the comic on his blog, and then began to feature it as a 'Favored Puny Human'. Before starting the website in 2003, the comics had been published in zine form. It was first published online on 7 February 2003 and was released three times a week until its end in June 2015. A Softer World is a webcomic by the writer Joey Comeau and artist Emily Horne, both Canadians.

A Softer World by Joey Comeau