LMNOP

You forgot Arial.

what about IMPACT!!!??
man i hate impact.

My teachers are always using Comic Sans MS, and its my friends' favorite font. I HAT it, and yesterday, I was surprised to have found someone who dislike it also. My favorite fonts are tahoma, trebushet ms, and georgia. I also hate Times New Roman, so when my parents tell me to read something for them, I always secretly change the font to Georgia. They never know.

A few of these fonts aren't bad, but it's their overuse that really makes them painful to see.

But I agreed with Lauren McMahon: where the hell is Brush Script?

Down with comic sans

To be quite honest I thought you were kind of a loser for posting this, until I saw all the people pissed off about you ripping on their awful fonts.

Also, a fucking attorney keeps emailing me in spreadsheets in COMIC SANS. Please kill me. To the children's hospital worker, I'm so, so sorry.

Hah. I read your list, and immediately thought "what about that 'edgy' looking ugly Mac font that shows up on every bar drink special and open stage flyer?" I didn't even know the name of it, but it's everywhere, it's the new "Geneva."

And then, lo and behold, half the comments in here mention "Sand," I looked that up, and sure enough, that's it!

Extremely overused.

nobody should every use fonts, they suck!

If I were to use font tags and expressly request a face of Comic Sans. And if your site allows comments with html tags in it. I wonder how many readers would see it rendered in Comic Sans?

Great list, man!

I think that this article is excellent....I like using unusual (but not bad) fonts just to throw people off. It does not hurt to make things blue instead of black from time to time.
I had a friend who used Lucida Sans Unicode at work a lot. Then the friend left my company. I still use the font on occaision in her honor.

I love Comic Sans, but I don't like when I see it plastered everywhere. Comic Sans is the only font I read in. Obviously this is a very legible font, otherwise people wouldn't use it for everyday spreadsheets and messaging. Sure you study typographic, but you don't understand aesthetics. Normal fonts usually have lines so thin you can hardly make out where one letter ends and where other letter starts. Also, it's not so rigid and prude, which appropriately describe all you Comic haters. On the other hand, it can use a lot of ink, so it's not the best for hard copies.

The Mac font Gadget is the worst font ever.

God, what kind of fool am I? I've always LOVED Comic Sans MS.

Ew - I just stopped to read a couple of comments up and have to say to y4 - we don't understand aesthetics? Chances are that most of us are designers, given that we actually clicked onto this page, and since you "love" Comic Sans and won't read anything else (guess you didn't read most of this page, then), clearly you are 4 years old and/or visually challenged. And if you're printing lots of it, probably mentally challenged as well.

BAN Comic Sans, delete it! Every new OS install even before updating I delete the font from my machine, it gets replaced by next font inline, so you can still tell who uses it.. and SLAP THEM!

Comic Sans is for a 12 year old writing about her pony!
Beyond 14yo no Comic Sans..

To many examples of wrong usage, like the new Office manager in place tries announce her/his presents in Comic Sans.. Aargh!
I even got a resume in Comic Sans.. Aargh..
The extreme fierce online gaming Clan the eXterminators *Cough*, has the line "Your Destiny is written in Blood" ... I wish it was in his blood who wrote it as it was tadaa... Comic ****** Sans..!
Business cards.. Pizza place sign .. written in Comic Sans..

Next time you start your windows computer go ASAP to the folders [WINDOWS]->[FONTS] and delete Comic Sans !

This got me all fired up again.. pardon me..

HOLY SHIT. I'm your friend, and apparently I don't read your blog nearly as much as all of these people. meanwhile, I used bradley hand for my bat mitzvah invitations in 1996 and they were awesome.

Algerian. Seriously, it's EVERYWHERE now. It doesn't look old-timey, it looks ridiculous.

Oh man..the worst two offenders in my mind...Matisse ITC (I see it all over the place) and all of the Exocet clones (You know, the Doom and Diablo font)...

you forgot courier new, the page-earner for loadie college fools who can't write and grin from ear to ear when they change their TNR 2-page essay into a 4-pager with Courier New. It's classic, but stupid.

TO Sarah: Resorting to personal attacks? Now who's acting like a 12 year old? Yea all these professionals who prefer Comics must all be retards.

what, no copperplate? that has to be one of the MOST overused fonts. Not to mention Sand (especially during halloween)

Who Cares. Fonts are fonts. There here to enjoy I use what I like. You use what you like.
And if you don't like it get your self old typewriter and use it. No font selection there................

There's much to agree with, disagree with, put into context, rant about, or qualify here, but I'll limit myself to one observation:

Reading the comments here has made me Oh So Very Glad that I read my email in plain text (in whatever font my telnet or xterm window is set to[*]) instead of HTML! There's still print and the web for poor font choices to annoy me in, but at least I'm spared a few of the horrors described here.

([*] It varies from computer to computer depending on the installed fonts to choose from, the screen resolution, and whether the monitor is old and dim.)

Chiller. Used in every halloween everything for miles and miles and miles and miles every October and for nothing else.

I also want to shoot apostrope abuser's. *Snrrrrk*

Do we know each other from another board? Its a unique name. Hop over to my LJ and say howdeee, Alex sez Hi.

I am a daily user of Bradley Hand; I have it set to be my font in mIRC, and really I associate it with that only, so I never use it elsewhere, unless I have a really good reason.

It's just, ever since I found Bradley Hand five years ago on my brand new computer with its brand new windows XP, I haven't been able to give it up, and now it's burned into my mind as my IRC channel font.

I love Papyrus, and I refuse to use it because of its ubiquity. It's all over the cafés, new development signs (carved into concrete, no less), anything even remotely herbal... I tell people that the most overused font is Papyrus, they say, "I don't know what that is," and I say, If I showed it to you, you would know.

One of my favorite fonts is a vaguely Asian-calligraphy font called President. I've actually seen it turn up in a few locations, such as the sign for San Jose's Christmas in the Park. My husband's had to get used to me playing "spot the font." I'm getting a little too good at it.

The rules for fonts are simple: Fit the font to its proper use. Sans-serifs are easier to read on screens while serifs are easier in print. (Ah, Footlight MT Light, how I love you for old-fashioned legibility.) KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) always applies, and there should be no more than three fonts per page, if the logo font or fonts counts as one. And for the love of all that is holy, keep it legible!

Incidentally, I use Papyrus as my default browser font, because that make it REALLY easy to see who has been slacking on the web design. Sometimes I'll see a page where one paragraph is in Arial, then two or three in Papyrus, then another in Helvetica in a different size... just a hint, there's this command called "select all" that is very useful when changing things such as font style. And since I have it at a large size, those pages that do come up in Papyrus are at least easy to read.

jeez I had no idea how many people out there harbored a hatred towards font. it's just a type setting, people. out of curiosity, though, what is the best font?

Personally I think the majority of you suffer from a misplaced superiority complex. But then again, I wouldn't know a soi-disant typophile it they bit me on the nose. So I'll just keep to my ignorant self out here in the hinterland and continue using comic sans because I find it very readable.

Now you can turn on that pent up frustration on me and leave the poor defenseless fonts alone.

I happen to used to love Comic Sans. Hell, I used to use all of the fonts at one point. I don't think they're bad, they're just misused. My high school did everything in Comic Sans...in purple nonetheless. Of course, I was young, so I thought it was cool. But now I'll look at it and say what the hell were they thinking.

Times New Roman should be up there for misused fonts. It's not a bad font, it's just that some people use it in graphics and stuff where it doesn't work. I found a way to make TNR a decent looking type, but a lot of people haven't found that yet.

I'm in a program and in the newsletter, they're using very...WTF fonts. I think one of them was Monotype Corsiva. That was for an article. Heh, you'd be better off using Comic Sans if that's the case.

I see Comic Sans waaaaay too much.
So much in fact, that I always feel the urge to walk up to whoever used it and cut their hands off.
And I'm not talking internet nerds (like myself) here, I'm talking about big time business executives and... *gasp!* ...Videogame designers.
I can't really remember off-hand all the games that I've seen it in, but I can at least tell ya one.
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life by Natsume.
http://hmotaku.net/games/awl/images/biru6.jpg>Behold!
Tell me that isn't Comic Sans and I'll cut your head off. <.<
Check out http://www.bancomicsans.com/>Ban Comic Sans.
It's good for a few laughs.

those fonts are pretty gruesome but my goodness, why waste your time blogging about them?

Let's not forget "Sand", my personal favorite, but what do I know.

For more discussion on Papyrus uses and abuses, please visit and comment:

http://nomiddleroad.blogspot.com/

Well said chris, font's aren't bad it's people that use then badly are bad. And this message is brought to you by the font Trebuchet by Vincent Connare too bad it isn't in Comic Sans.

I came across this by chance. It's so funny because I had never even heard of Comic until recently (I lead a very sheltered life). I took over editing a newsletter for a local organization to which I belong. The newsletter had been done in Comic, so I continued it. Combination of laziness on my part and also because I think it looks good!

I avoid Ariel. If someone emails me in Ariel and I respond I make a point to change my response font - to Times New Roman, which, apparently, does not go over too big around here either. I like the readability of TNR.

I agree that the font should fit the text. I think sometimes people use a certain font out of laziness or habit. I use TNR for business correspondence (I'm a CPA). When I do more social or fun emails, I still use TNR out of sheer habit.

The actual font doesn't bother me as much as when it's too big or too small, too cursive, all caps, or that stupid caps and lower case within words (who started that!!!). I don't mind readable cursive, but most of what is used isn't. I hate reading a newsletter, flyer, etc. that has numerous fonts, or isn't consistent with its use of font sizes, bolds, etc.

BTW, what do you consider appropriate fonts for business, for newsletters (civic or social groups), for social correspondence? Also if you don't use the fonts that come with WIndows, what do you use? Thanks!

I've used some of these years longer than they've been "bad". I've made custom logo's in some of these; years ago, before there were even blogs.

Now I'm supposed to go back and change them? cool; I have too much time on my hands anyway, hundreds of new fonts everyday, and this bit of "webfashion" is just the thing...

Well I am innocent of all of the above. Never used any of the 7 fonts. I am more of a Helvetica person, thought on Windows the only choice is Arial.

Back in Uni days, the required font is Times New Roman which is not eye friendly.

Check out "The Scourge of Arial"
http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html

The only valid item to the list is #1, which has been done to death, the rest of this list is filler.

Lauren must surely support this movement: http://earz-mag.com/2007/March/Why_Ban_Comic_Sans.html
http://bancomicsans.com/home.html

Comic Sans MS was origonally used in comic books. Try looking at it in 8 or 10 point, italicised, all caps. Maybe bold if you don't see it yet. And yes, people need to stop abusing it. I usually saw it used by english/social science teachers on handouts :(

May I suggest "Cooper" and all its derivatives and look-alikes, as a strong runner-up to your fine list? Oh, and Arial ;)

Interesting and hilarious. To the person who said that tables were a misuse of HTML, at one time they were the ONLY thing that gave a web page structure so, yes, now they would be overused. I would say the same for ComicSans and Sand; at one time the choice was, er, limited so that's what anyone who wanted something more whimsical used. Thankfully (or maybe not so much), we now have a bevy of bad, pixellated, "ooh my handwriting is a FONT" fonts. Oh, and I happen to LIKE Papyrus, not for a term paper or a resume or a business document but, sure, for a title, done tastefully, absolutely. Don't even get me started on bad web design; just go look at MySpace for a vague peek.

(1)It's true that seriously criticizing someone's aesthetic preferences as inferior, or decrying the "abuse" of words nowadays, etc., is snobbish, conceptually confused, and (if an artist) disrespectful of your audience.

(2)That doesn't seem to be what this hilarious post is doing. It's having fun using a kernel of truth to draw comically broad stereotypes. That's a staple of humor, and I love it here!

(3)As far as my personal tastes go, I love Palatino (and knockoffs) and Helvetica (and close knockoffs--not Arial!). I also like (God help me) Monotype Modern; I guess it has a Mom's apple pie familiarity from its ubiquity in math pdfs.

(4)The Ban Comic Sans campaign, like others of its kind, is also pretty fun, but only for those who do keep it fun and in perspective. As CS's designer points out, he'd observed back in the computer game stone age that programmers were putting text font in talk bubbles, etc... Yes, it's bizarre that CS is being used all over the place as a text font. Yes, it's bizarre that so many static graphics (eg webcomics) have taken to using it. Yes, it's a shame that even for its appropriate uses CS should have such dominance. But that's obviously not anything to hold against the font itself, and I hope the poor designer dude doesn't lose any sleep over the opinions of anyone who truly thinks otherwise.

(5)That said, CS really does look pretty ugly to me in its own right! There's so much you can legitimately say against it...To take just one huge example: It leaves the most glaringly "artificial"-looking spacing I've ever seen--and this from a typeface that's supposed to be evocative of handwriting. (The designer says after using "Comic Book" as a working font name he'd spent some time brainstorming its permanent moniker. I'd have suggested "Comic Courier.")

(6)Finally...Back to the "everything in its place" thing: It's just my personal taste, remember, but I kind of don't go with that whole "overuse" thing for Helvetica (where sansserif is appropriate), Palatino, Times Roman, etc. I think these are something like simple modern classics, sort of polo shirt and chino fonts (damn well-cut ones at that). When in doubt, you'll always look elegant and in good taste by going there--and that's pretty stylin' in and of itself. One of the common themes of our half tongue-in-cheek complaining is that people are out there looking for an easy way to add "personality," etc., to their messages, and they do so in a way that ends up appearing to a lot of people as trite, silly, or both. Believe me, I don't lack for love of lettering or love of variety, but if these "font abusers" had instead chosen--when in doubt--to keep things simple, we wouldn't be here poking gentle fun at them for adopting the textual version of a junior-high kid's wardrobe.

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As a practising calligrapher, I have to say, any attempt at making a calligraphic font is doomed to failure.

What makes calligraphy is it's intimate relationship to the subject it is concerning and the letters surrounding it. It cannot be strictly formalized in the way that font files enforce.

That and the fact that calligraphic fonts are typically used by untrained teenagers and grandmas should make all font designers quit attempting the impossible.

This comment's, what, a year late? Screw it, I'm posting it, anyway.

The only one of those I'm guilty of using in the past 15 years is Vivaldi (I probably used Comic Sans for something back in school). Then, I saw your little quote next to it, "Becuase everything you write should look like a wedding invitation." Actually, it was my wedding invitation I used it for, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

Zapfino...my design colleague uses it 80% of his designs. After I noticed this, I started noticing that this freaking font is used EVERYWHERE!

The first thing I did when I got my new computer back from my tech-gurus was
to rip Comic Sans out. I laughed as I did it.

I rather like Papyrus though.

I have a good friend in Finland who is a professional graphics designer for a forestry magazine...so I'd know to ask him for advice if I ever needed to do any
pamphlets or what-have-you.

My pet peeve is the use of the Battlestar Galactica-style font by the FDA, which I usually see on Google News.

Ohh boy does it screw with my sense of aesthetics.

No votes for Chili Pepper? The font of choice for scrapbookers everywhere?