Top Ten Worst Font Choices

August 4, 2008

I was reading "7 Fonts that should die," by 10,000 Words this morning, and it came immediately to my attention (as it did all the other commentors) that the author left out the worst font ever from his list. So, I felt I should add to amend the list of the worst font choices ever with my own spin. Here goes:

1. Comic Sans

   

   Comic Sans is quite possibly the least professional font choice a "designer" can choose. It's rounded terminals and crooked stems just scream unprofessional, amateur, and in most non-designers' opinions — "cute." Cute is a horrible reason to pick a font.

   Comic Sans was created to give a comic book feel. It's meant for comic book usage, not packaging, book reports, or pretty much anything (really).

   I'm not the only one with a gripe about Comic Sans. There are plenty of people who hate Comic Sans with a passion as much as I do. The largest contributing factor to its overuse (#2 on the overuse list) is the fact it's on everyone's computer, since it was released by Microsoft in 1995.

2. Papyrus

   

   Next to Comic Sans, Papyrus is the 3rd most overused font on the planet (I believe anyway). The sad part is that most people who use it are not designers (or worse — think they are). It also shows up on everyone's font library by default.

   What does Papyrus look like? Well, try Egyptian/Biblical times. Hence why it's named after a type of paper engineered by the Egyptians. If this is so, the font should be used only in situations where the designer is trying to communicate that feeling. It doesn't communicate a beach-theme, a relaxed theme, or any other feeling besides the one it was named after.

   With that, it's also really, really illegible. Font should not only be chosen for the feeling it conveys, but also for how legible it is (especially when it's used in paragraphs)!

3. Trajan

   

   Trajan would be an acceptable Roman font if it wasn't overused so much. It has even been declared The Movie Font because of its over use on movie titles, posters, and dvd cases.

   The reason it's chosen for movies is because it "conveys [a sense of] drama" (10,000 Words). It has this respectably quality to it. However, when used, it tends to strip the respect from the designer who chose it out of habit. It's not like there isn't any other dramatic, respectful serif fonts to chose from. Be original.

4. Brush Script

   

   Brush Script, in my opinion, is the worst example of a brush script. It's like the fat cousin to a more elegant form of writing. If Times New Roman is too serious then Brush Script is too fat and lazy — as is, probably, the designer who uses it.

5. Copperplate

   

   Copperplate Gothic says "my business is ugly" better than any typeface. It is the quintessential logo font choice for amateur businesses.

   Whether you choose gothic light or gothic bold, it's a bad choice. But, if you want to add some shock value or a black trenchcoat-like feel, maybe you have the right to exercise your indiviuality along with everyone else who dresses like uses the same font.

6. Coolvetica

   

   Wow, another Helvetica cop-out! Why can't people just use one of the most brilliant fonts ever designed instead of trying to make their own lame version of it? Most PC's have it, so it's not a case of licensing.

   And more arrogantly so, Coolvetica just is not that cool. That's like me claiming to be an awesome basketball player. Hey Larabie, what's with the lower lip on the lowercase "t?" And the "G" has to have the most arbitrary descending terminal of all time!

7. dearJoe

   

   As 10,000 Words put it, dearJoe doesn't even look like handwriting. Well, at least not someone's who is sane.

8. Curlz MT

   

   Curlz is cute. This is exactly why you shouldn't use it unless you're trying to make something look like an over-frilled 12 year-old girl.

9. Snap ITC

   

   If I see this on another event poster or cheap advertising board I'm going to…[fill in the blank].

   I can't even begin to explain why people chose this font. It's like trying to find logic in an L. Ron Hubbard book.

10. Goudy Stout

    

    Substitute one letter and you get "gaudy," meaning tasteless. If Brush Script is fat, Goudy Stout is obese adopted child of what would be a more tasteful family without it. Too bad he was welcomed with open arms.

11. Arial

    

    I lied, there's 11:

    In a fight for an alternative to Adobe's PostScript font licensing, Apple and Microsoft opened their doors to clone fonts like Arial. Arial is a font with similarities to Monotype's Grotesque typeface and similar weights to the popular Helvetica. The problem is it's not quite as elegant or as classy as its better twin. But since the rise of the personal computer and its ability to make everyone a designer, Arial has become the widest used font in the world.

    The only 2 factors redeeming it from being higher up on my list is that it's not that bad and it's so close in resembling Helvetica that it is often confusing to tell them apart — unless you kow what you're looking for.

Top Ten Worst Font [...]

August 4, 2008

Mark Caron

11 comments

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