LMNOP

When I saw the adult sized jean jumper thing, i automatically thought mrs frazier in my 7th grade pre algebra class

Comic Sans should be permanently banned. Everywhere. I quite enjoyed the list and found myself nodding in agreement all the way through. Funny stuff.

Wow. Finally a website that deals with the REALLY pertinent issues of the day.

Major omission. CarolesChunk, available here:

http://www.newfonts.net/index.php?pa=show_font&id=50

Each glyph is a different depiction of the act of vomiting.

It's great for menus, programs, invitations, and the like.

One font usage strikes me as the weirdest EVER. I work in a psychology lab, and we do experiments with human subjects. We have to explain our experiments in laborious detail to the Institutional Review Board (IRB), a group whose only job is to ensure that experiments are safe, legal and ethical. Serious, right? Except their entire website is done in Comic Sans. My head asplode everytime I have to log in.

<span style="font-face: courier;" >You all suck. Don't shoot the messenger. </rant>

OK, I'll shoot:

Another reason to hate these is that they're all Microsoft-only fonts. (and if they've been ported, I don't care. Even if they were licensed off-platform, every time you see one of these, think Windows XP on AOL. You'll never be wrong.)

So... apart from being used too much by clueless people, why exactly are these fonts the worst?

In the image at the top of the article you have mixed up Bradley Font and Viner Hand (or you have done so in the font examples)

Where's Arial?

What about Sand? A font that looks like it was shat into existence. Seriously - it looks like poo.

Why are these fonts the worst? Because the entire goal of typography is to present written ideas visually, using a typeface that complements the words and tones being used. When office execs send out business-minded emails in Comic Sans, or when Curlz is used for the body of a flyer, such fonts are being misused: the way in which they're implemented are far departures from their original intended use.

So what? Well, think of other things that are ubiquitously overused. Take the word awesome, for example. The word itself is a powerful one, meaning that the subject has actually inspired awe. However, the misuse of this word ("Hey, your email address is awesome!") has cheapened its meaning to the point where it's no longer as pure and powerful when used in its intended context. If you were a novelist and needed a word to describe something that was truely awe-inspiring, using a word like awesome would detract from that idea, as it's a word that's more closely associated with its misuse than its actual meaning. The word itself—an otherwise acceptable word—has become so overused that it's lost its efficacy in relating ideas.

Similarly, such fonts have become overused, confused, and, as a result, bad. Even if Vivaldi is appropriate for a piece of design work, it's probably a mistake for the designer to use it, as it has been misused to the point where it no longer evokes the intended response. It's no longer an effective way of communicating an idea. Thus, it's become a typographic failure.

Does that make sense, O' Critics? Do you agree, designers?

Most abused sign font: Algerian.

See: http://www.flickr.com/groups/algerianfont/pool/

Once you know what it looks like, you'll start seeing it EVERYWHERE.

Given the number of comments this post has received, LMNOP should switch to being all about fonts

I would just like to say to all of you who have responded to this blog (who do not know lauren personally) about how upset you are about fonts that she picked or did not pick...GO GET LAID OR SOMETHING. clearly, you do not appreciate or understand her humor or anything funny at all.

Oh my God--who knew this would be the post that broke the dam? Also, your "who let the athletic trainers in" had me crack up and had the girl in my office looking at me oddly.

When I saw the post title I thought to myself.....COMIC SANS!

I was pleased to see that it made #1 on your list. I hate it too.

Very funny post! :)

http://bancomicsans.com/

I'd rank Papyrus at the very top.

It's overused in ads, logos, it's become ubiquitous to the point of unavoidability.

I think the most amazing revelation to come of this post is not a better understanding of bad fonts,but a better understanding of just how many people don't really do anything at work but surf the internet.

You SO forgot Tempus Sans ITC. Good only for labeling "Column A" and "Column B" on menus at Asian restaurants.

I have a theory: There's a proper and tasteful use (in some cases maybe only one) for every single typeface ever designed. But knowing the exact moment when to use Dom Casual or Eras Bold... that's the real trick.

I agree with the list. I also agree that Mistral should be on the list: for some reason, whenever I see it, I instantly think "strip club". I agree that Sand should be there: it's often used to either for children's applications, or for horror applications.

Also, where's Impact? It's a crutch for mediocre billboard designers. And it should never be used at small sizes.

Cooper Black should also be on the list. It was overused in the 1970s but has come back for 70s retro (as if there aren't any other 70s fonts). Cooper Black=leisure suit

Delphin is another pseudo-calligraphy font often used in restaurants trying to look upscale.

And what about Zapf Chancery (especially in all caps)? I refuse to get the engraved door for my Razr phone just because it uses this font.

Tekton: in the kiddie pseudo-handwriting genre

Overused fonts that aren't really bad but killed by ubiquity: Times New Roman, Verdana (a great screen font but monotonous when used excessively in print applications), Helvetica (a favorite of the Swiss Cheese crowd and unimaginative architects), CrackHouse (a House Industries font that's a favorite of low-rent retail packaging designers), Cezanne (a P22 font which looked nice when it first came out but has now often used inappropriately)

And Arial looks like a bad knockoff of Helvetica. I hate it when people mix Arial and Helvetica in the same layout.

It's not just overuse that hurts a font, it's also bad distortion of fonts that can make an okay font look terrible. Think WordArt. And where there is WordArt used, there is also probably bad vector clip art nearby (like "where there's smoke, there's fire").

Great post :-) Yeah, I learned long ago how theological these arguments about type can get...the zealots are plenty. I, myself, have an irrational hatred of Comic Sans that goes back years that I blogged about in early 2005. My post is more contemptuous than yours, but then Comic Sans is the type of blasphemy that can stir my fundamentalist rage.

What? No Zapf Chancery? Heh!

Thanks for making me laugh out loud.

Coming from a perspective where I see far too many poorly designed icons a day to ever get a solid night's sleep again, I was going to suggest Scriptina, which is the bane of decent fanart designers everywhere, but the majority of your fonts are used in multiple media, not just graphic art. I did see Scriptina used on a billboard once and nearly drove off the road in surprise, though.

This is from a girl who regularly abuses Jean-Claude's Hand, though, so maybe I should pipe down.

Mistral and Brush Script please.

"Yeah, I (the writer of the post) agree with that POV, Ben. Probably the real focus of my hatred is font abusers and not the actual fonts themselves. Like many a wanted criminal before them, these fonts were seriously failed by society before they rose to notoriety."

Your article does no such thing. In fact, it says very little. If you had pointed out how these fonts should be used, it would have been interesting. Hell, you didn't even tell us why they're bad fonts. Just that you hate them and 'these people use them'.

Lame.

This article should be titled "The 7 Worst Script Fonts."

Where are the bad sans, serifs, blackletters, and so on?

Nice list. Very close to what I would put. Of course we all loathe Comic Sans. My company distributed benefit/401k handouts entirely in that typeface. Barf!

If you were to expand the list, I would tack on Mistral, Chiller, Impact, Showcard Gothic. But excellent job. Especially thumbs up for putting Bradley Hand ITC on there, a font that looks shitty and rastery in any use.

I'm a graphic designer, and in one of my college classes, we had to design a cd cover. we then presented them to the class and talked about them. One girl, when she showed her album of an Aersomith's Greatest Hits, had the font "SAND" used all over. There was a unanimous "gasp!" that came from the rest of the classroom. Ugh!

Thanks Lauren. Your list (and some subsequent comments) had me laughing out loud at work. I especially liked the examples of common abusers. Too funny.

You guys are idiots. Dumb persons
GET A LIFE

You'll also find Comic Sans users put extra spaces in between a sentence and far too many exclamation marks !!!!!!!

I agree with those that complain about Algerian. You see it on signs all the time. My theory is that is so overused because it's the first "fancy" font a user finds when looking at a list of MS Office fonts alphabetically.

I've been complaining about it for a good ten years now.

I agree with your choices, though there is something sort of sexy about Papyrus that I can't put my finger on. Papyrus might be the Pamela Anderson of fonts. I would add University Roman into this rogue's gallery, used on all manner of the crappiest designs in the world, mostly awnings of galleries that sell Thomas Kincaid paintings.

For the Papyrus lover (or hater): I heart Papyrus.

Listen, I agree, in general, that most of these fonts are crap, but I have to come to Comic Sans' defense. That font was designed by serious professionals with one purpose in mind. Feel free to attack AIM & Microsoft Word users that go happy with the font choices, but really, it's a highly readable, well-designed sans-serif font. But that doesn't mean you should do your company's annual report in it...

Actually, there are good (okay... decent) uses for every font on the list-- otherwise, why would someone spend the time and $$ to design them at all?

All you're really doing here is calling these fonts cliche, and that's not the same as "worst". Bad fonts have poor angles, don't scale and are not done professionally... none of these fit that category.

What you're complaining of is a simple case of misuse. One could say the same thing about TABLE's in HTML or cliche's in language. Does that make it the WORST tag or the WORST sentence. Not really. So, I have to respectfully disagree that these are the WORST fonts ever.

Comic Sans walks into a bar only to be told 'We don't serve your type here...'

MS Comic Sans the most lovely font overhere in Russia by spammers (they are ugly & dirty like comic itself) and in menu in Moscow restoraunts

No, no, no!!!
Bad, too bad...
I want to see analysis of forms and counters.
Where is rotis?
Bad election, and is not justify.

Read please
www.letritas.blogspot.com and
www.garabatitos.blogspot.com

before kill the work of a great designer.

(sorry by my poor english)

Comic Sans walks into a bar only to be told 'We don't serve your type here...'

Excellent. I love it.

How Comic Sans came about:
http://www.connare.com/comic.htm

#8: Lithos

The hospital I work for has chosen Comic Sans as its corporate typeface. Every offical notice, letterhead, signpost or form has to be in Comic Sans. I think the reasoning is that it's a children's hospital so lets not use a scary font with sharp corners. It's a design nightmare. You want to prescribe morphine? The form is in Comic Sans. Everything is in Comic Sans. It is worse than you can possibly imagine.

after reading the "about" section, i gathered that LMNOP is not a graphic designer or a typographer, which frees her up to comment in any way about font abuse without having to be grilled on her scholarship.

as a graphic designer and a typographer, i found her analysis extremely amusing. dead on, in fact. i will be sharing her take with my design students when we discuss the difference between display and text typefaces--this is the crux of the matter.

Okay...I agree with MOST being the worst, but I rather like Bradley...especially when I think of the young co-eds using and abusing it....