Zapf Chancery... the worst!

Comic Sans and Curlz..... shudder.

Wholly crap, who thought typefaces could be such a hot button topic?

I remember a song called 'GERMAN BOLD ITALIC' by Towa Tei and Kylie Minogue... a song about a typeface!! lol... fascinating collaboration...

There are no bad faces... according to Spiekermann. Every typeface was developed for a reason, even comic sans! It would be an interesting design challenge to restrict yourself to use only the so called 'worst' faces.

In my opinion the worst typefaces are generally the free faces. There are usually many problems with x-heights lining up correctly, character width consistency, etc. I would rather use Papyrus or Comic Sans over gratis fonts any day!

Am I the only one who hates Gill Sans? I mean. comic and papyrus, sure. but i dont like gill with its funny little i

I just remember the time I had a debate with my well educated aunt about why comic sans was the worst font ever. She continued to debate that it was the best. Saying, "Its pretty." Its about anything but pretty.

I actually received the worst resume I've read in 24 years. All in Capitals and Papyrus.

oh man, crumpled that up fast

Hobo should make the cut too!

Chrynkow (? can't read it!) well put!

'It's the Times New Roman of the lightly educated.'

ha!

Some departments at the university where I work have a habit of using Comic Sans to promote important or official events… Eeeeeek. But then again, I sometimes wonder if Comic Sans abuse is better than those who like to use a script font (like Commercial Script) – in ALL CAPS – to promote a formal evening event. At least you can read Comic Sans!

I hate Comic Sans! I remember using it before my life as a designer started... I am now ashamed. I hate it when designers use it, it is so office-potluck!

Good note Linda, and for what it's worth, I feel badly for the creator. In my mind, it's not so much the typeface that's a problem, but rather how people use it. I suppose it's an issue of typographic suitability. Or, perhaps it is just the type equivalent of "Achy Breaky Heart". ;-)

A note about Comic Sans (from Wikipedia):

Comic Sans has become the subject of a campaign by some designers to limit or eliminate its use, on the grounds that (as typographic purists claim) it is poorly designed and that its inclusion in the Microsoft system fonts package lends itself to inappropriate use—for example, as a text face in documents or at large sizes in signage.

Some typeface designers say that the typeface is poorly drawn, virtually equal weight being given to the downstrokes and horizontals, and little thought given to the kerning between character pairs, eliminating any of the informal characteristics of true hand-drawn lettering.

Microsoft designer Vincent Connare says that he began work on Comic Sans in October of 1994. In his defense, Connare claims that it was not originally designed as a typeface, but as a solution to the problem of finding lettering suitable for the packaging of children’s software (MS Bob), although the distinction between 'typeface' and 'lettering' in this context is somewhat obscure.

Even though it had a good run, I think Optima should be locked up and not touched for 50 years. It's the Times New Roman of the lightly educated.