The 8 Worst Fonts in the World

Everyone has a favorite go-to font, whether you're a designer or you just like to jazz up an email or a Word doc. Some fonts get over-used, some become associated with online trends to a degree that limits their other uses, an some were just plain ugly to start with. I was interested, naturally, to see if I agreed with this list by Simon Garfield at fastcodesign.com about his eight least favorite.

Garfield notes that some of the hatred of certain fonts may be the natural dislike of the insider for the n00b. Comic sans, while absent from his list, draws a lot of hatred for being a go-to font of the casual designer of flyers and office signs. I have to agree with him regarding Papyrus, which seems to be wildly popular with health spas and houses of worship, and the eye-watering 2012 Olympic Font.

Only a few fonts are available with certain applications such as MSWord, and that certain fonts tend to be overused on signage and even on logos and branding. Using "handwritten" fonts like Brush Script and Zapfino for body text are distracting to read. With so many fonts online for free, I would urge any aspiring designer to browse what's available.