The 8 Worst Fonts in the World
Fonts aren’t always noticed, and often that is a good thing. They are meant to be functional, artistic, supportive of a message, and appealing to the reader, but sometimes turn out to be offensive, shocking, tasteless, boring or bland. Many people have strong feelings about type fonts and are usually not afraid to express them.
Simon Garfield has written a book called “Just My Type”, a book of stories about fonts. In it he explains why we are influenced by type choices, how computers changed the landscape for font design, and how and why we all have opinions about the type faces we read daily. One chapter is called ‘The Worst Fonts in the World’ and Fast Company Design has expanded on this chapter in a recent article. This article also includes survey results of designers listing the top ten fonts used the most, the top ten most highly visible and the top ten least favorite. Interesting that Helvetica, Gill Sans and Arial are on all three lists.
For those who can’t wait to see the list of Worst Fonts, here they are:
8. Eco Font 4. Papyrus
7. Souvenir 3. Neuland Inline
6. Gill Sans Light Shadowed 2. Ransom Note
5. Brush Script 1. The 2012 Olympic Font
Read the article and comment on if you think Fast Company and Garfield are correct. As a company who reproduces your fonts both digitally and with ink on paper, we’d like to hear what you think.