Fonts NOT to Use

Hi, everybody!

As many of you are great graphic designers (intuituvely or professionally), I'm sure you must really know which fonts must be avoided. Apart from the already negative reputation that Comic Sans has got, is there any other font you can't put up with?

For example, I think Papyrus makes a website look funny. It reminds me of the the old times, when I was 50 years younger.
Let alone when papers or documents with this font are submitted.

Loved the thread!
You should really mention Comic Sans too. That's dreadful...

Yeah! Last month I got a CV written in Comic Sans. We just looked at each other here in the office, just like saying, "Thanks for trying. Next!"
It reminds me of an BBC Magazine article about Comic Sans about this disgraced font.




Impact is another font which I just find awful. But I totally lost respect to the font when it started being used in Internet memes.


Use it somewhere else and you'll be likely not to be taken seriously.

Ughhh all 3 above are fonts I just can't deal with o_e' I've used Impact before but only when 1. it was specifically asked for or 2. it was in the instructions of the professor x_x Personally hated using it, and would have preferred if Arial Black was used instead..

Another two I try to avoid at all costs are Courier and Brush Script. Courier just looks so old and outdated and.. too mechanical for me Idk. Can't do anything fun with it and it's way too thin for any sort of effects to be applied. Brush Script is just a font I can't work with; Idk why but whenever I use it I end up disliking the design and rethinking the entire idea LOL.

I like Courier if I need to create a "old computer" effect on something or for coding display, because it's basically the most common style of font for displaying raw html, css, etc.

What about favorites?

I have personally loved using these in my designs (almost in order from best to okay):

-Blue Highway
-Roboto
-Modern No 20
-Gotham
-Hermes
-Enclave
-Helvetica
-Rockwell
-Verdana

Those are wonderful Fonts, @Dr Jay! From your list, my favourite ones are Roboto, Modern No 20, Gotham, Enclave and Helvetica.

Back to not very appealing fonts... While I don't mind using Calibri, every time I see a document or presentation in this font, I feel like the doc's been sort of improvised, and its layout is totally unattractive. I don't know why, it's a funny thing, as it doesn't happen, for instance, with Helvetica.
Perhaps it's because Windows users, like me, are overusing this default font.

Algerian is another font which I find funny.
And I couldn't agree more with you, @Valoish, Brush Script is not ugly per se, but I think it's been so overused,particularly in .... I don't know... cheesy contexts, that we can't help ending up disliking it. And even though there are fonts with the same concept (e.g. Signalist), perhaps Brush Script is too much for the eye.

Okay, mini-rant here...

Lots of Fairy Tail forums out there, as well as One Piece forums. And so many people ask for those specific fonts on small buttons. x.x' I have to explain every time that those fonts are meant for larger images, not buttons. Have you SEEN those on tiny buttons? It's terrible. TERRIBLE.

I personally prefer more flexible fonts that can look good on various sizes. ^^ I think my favorite font to use is Optimus Princeps.

LOL! Small buttons in Algerian is like an elephant on high heels!

I didn't know Optimus Princeps. What a beautiful font, @JerriLeah7! And I agree: it's a fancy and flexible font to be used in small buttons. No doubt it will be mentioned very soon, when someone starts a thread on favourite fonts!

I wonder why did Microsoft remove Papyrus from Windows 8.1. I like Papyrus and Parchment. There are others, but too many to list.