The worst font of all time, in all its lowly shame, is actually the victim. Maybe it’s my ex-girlfriend who’s wrong after all. It’s a victim of misunderstanding.Ĭomic Sans gets a bad reputation, but perhaps it’s the designers who are to blame. Nix the Comic Sans for all things business-related, and, honestly, for anything not related to a five-year-old’s birthday invitation. Seriously, don’t force me to make up words to properly express your brand’s identity. Sans the magic.įew things can so boldly dismiss your credibility as using a font that could be described as “goobery”. They will, however, be relying on what their immediate senses tell them, and let’s face it: this font imitates a child’s magic marker doodle. The vast majority of people who come across your design will not possess a degree in graphic design, nor will they be applying technical theory to your work. And when it comes to optics, it’s really all about feeling. That’s not a technical term - or a word, per Grammarly’s ruling - but it’s certainly a feel. It makes you look like a goober.Ĭomic Sans just has a goobery vibe. The unbalanced look is amplified further in body copy, where the eye can scan the entire swath of text at a glance. Comic Sans doesn’t make this adjustment, leading to a lopsided junction point. Helvetica sees a marginally thinner stroke where the shoulder meets the stem. (That’s the spot where the arching part connects with the straight part.) This leads to uneven characters and contributes to legibility issues.įor comparison, we can look at the Helvetica font. However, unlike fellow unmodulated sans serifs like Ariel or Helvetica, Comic Sans doesn’t account for the added thickness at the junction points of the stem and shoulder. This is because it has unmodulated letterforms, meaning there is little to no contrast in the thickness of the characters. Like many sans serif typefaces, Comic Sans has a relatively even stroke. And Comic Sans perfectly exemplifies what it means - in typographic terms, anyway - to not carry your weight well. Just me? Well, It refers to the ability of someone or something to evenly distribute its weight in a visually unoffensive manner. Perhaps in the context of a backhanded compliment from a snippy aunt at Thanksgiving dinner. You’ve likely heard the phrase “to carry one’s weight well”. (Sus.) But what is it about this particular typeface that makes it pretty much the worst font of all time? It manages weight poorly. And sure, it has its fair share of apologists. We scoff at its clunky, outdated appearance, and its ability to immediately call out the amateurism of its users.

Long has this typeface been ridiculed for its childlike and playful-to-a-fault demeanor. Without further ado, let’s rip into these typographical atrocities. But, while we’ll be picking on these specific examples, the points made throughout the article will help you when assessing any font. We will be dissecting what makes these fonts so agreeably disliked, so that we can easily spot similar downfalls in others. In recent years, these fonts have been relegated to meme status. Some of you may be thinking, “Justin, you’re really picking on low-hanging fruit here.” Well, it’s true.

This article will tackle two typefaces sure to send a shiver down the spine of any graphic designer. Possibly a logo? It hardly matters all of these projects hold a consistent truth: Font choice is an essential ingredient in how viewers will receive information. Those unlucky enough to fit into the category of worst fonts should be avoided, lest they render your design ineffective and unprofessional. Whether the crime is illegibility, overuse, or poor aesthetics, some typefaces simply suck.

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