Oh stop it. This is the biggest waste of band width in the world.

Get over it.

Because it was abused so much in my workplace, I have to go with Algerian. It was bad enough seeing the all caps font used in all the signs around the building, like: YOUR MOTHER DOESN'T WORK HERE, SO CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF."

But then I had to sit through an hour-long technical presentation, with all the titles set in Algerian. And the worst part was they has set the tracking so that all the letters overlapped, and were on the verge of unintelligibility. AAARRGGH! (the horror!)

I would tend to agree with James about this topic, and I have a soft spot for "bad" typefaces like Souvenir, but there is one popular free font that never fails to make me a bit nauseous when I see it: Black Chancery.

Dan, Just One???

Sorry, I'm filled with too much hate to be limited by just one. Here's to streetwalkers and health code violations:

Culrz- This preferred choice of the American dingbat pre-adolescent peroxide blonde gloss junkie is imprinted all over pink homework folders and sparkly snug-fitting phase tees- "I'm in love with what's his face".

Horriable Harrington- this barber will cut your hair for $5.

Running that late night pizza joint with floors stickier than a booger in a jar of honey?- This ones for you.

Mistral- The 'fluid' script gracing the worlds adult entertainment products.

Dan's favorite beeocth

Nasty Nasty Abadai- ugly on all counts!!!

Superultra, that's not Souvenir, but some bizzare thing called 'Souvenir Mono.' Souvenir is well drawn, and that's not.

Hi William... You are right. Dan hates the mono version of the typeface. I posted it just for him loathe.

Ravie

Ravie... but its so cute... :-(

Since I'm so equal opportunity:
http://www.fountain.nu/catalogue/pizzicato.asp

Mikey :-)

Comic sans and Brush Script is too obvious to hate on… can't stand Mistral.

I've been very guilty of using Benguiat and Curlz in a professional application. Although I can say I wanted to use Benguiat for an Art Nouveau poster so it was sort of the correct application, I guess the same can be said about Harrington. There was no excuse for using Curlz though.

Comic sans and Brush Script is too obvious to hate on… can’t stand Mistral.

I second that. Times New Roman is a font that bugs me quite a bit. I think it's because of how often it is the default. I guess it's just played out.
--
Focus beyond the dot of the i.

"...if there were ONE typeface on the face of the earth that you’d rather never see again..."
That would have to be the ONE I'm finishing up, at any given moment. ;-)

I am all for quality free fonts but I barely use them at all. 99.9% of the typefaces I use for work are licenced fonts.

That is understandable if you are "in the biz". For those of us not charging their purchases off to a customer, Dafont kinda rocks.

And they are pretty good about protecting you guys.

As an aside, the whole knock-off argument seems pretty well shot down by companies like Adobe and Microsoft, I am am following the common reasoning in another thread (something about "Bloody rip-offs")

http://www.fountain.nu/catalogue/pizzicato.asp

I guess I should be embarrassed to say that when I saw that for the first time, I thought it was the coolest font ever.
; )

Another nominee might be Hobo.

Once upon a time, about 8 years ago I had the pleasure of hearing a lecture given by Gerard Unger on the mid-century (last) typefaces from France. Before this lecture I hated Mistral (and many fonts from the late, great Excoffon). This hate was tied to a having to do DTP (as it was then called) with so few fonts available to me in the late 80s and early 90s. Silly and childish. Gerard's rich and detailed stories of driving through the French country side and visiting towns with traces of the old signage and even stories from his own youth mesmerized me.

As it happened I was going to France for the first time only a short while later. I never thought I'd visit France, Paris seemed but a dream. I was in a frenzy of anticipation. He had opened my eyes to why the designs were originally created and I wanted to see them for myself.

Now one of my favorite time periods in the history of the poster is Mid-century France. (Well, in fact, I have a huge bias now toward anything French.)

The lesson to be learned: Before you go hating a typeface learn the history and the context.

There are no bad typefaces, only poorly used typefaces.

Oh, beaten! Tiffany communicates across the point I was trying to make far more eloquently. :^)

I just took a look at Souvenir, and have to say I'd take it (especially the light & light italic versions) over Hobo, Mistral, Algerian, & Ravie any day.

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/itc-souvenir/light-italic/

I should edit my post but don't want the entry time to change:

I meant to add something about history of French graphic design and not only the poster, but it just so happens that I particularly love signage and poster art from France from the time period.

Nobody's mentioned University Roman? Used for supposedly 'classy' jobs.

Nick Cooke

Urgh... University Roman. The funny thing is, I've been seeing this everywhere recently, and thinking how horrible it is, but I didn't know what it was called until I was prompted by this thread to take a look at it.

Name a bad knock-off of Helvetica - Sorry, Akzidenz Grotesk and let that be it.

oh yeah... And Tiresias. (combined they'd just barely count as one, right?)
>;¬)

Ah, University Roman! Didn't actually identify it when taking this photo. The reason for taking the photo was the strange mixture of the type of business (grills and such out of wire) and font.

I agree with Tiffany comments, context redeems what may seem ugly to the uneducated eye. That is not to say one has to like a particular font or that it is even appropriate to use today.

"There are no bad typefaces, only poorly used typefaces."

Agreed, for the most part... but there is still Black Chancery, which I thought was horrible when I first saw it as a student in the late '80s.

Are you happy now, Dan? You made me say it... my vote is for Black Chancery.

I'd have to say Rotis. Wouldn't miss it one bit...

I ignored this thread because I wasn't bored enough. If I had to reply, my answer would be the same as Mark Simonsons! That "font" is so execrable It makes me angry. It's obviously free; who would buy such a thing?

Recently I saw a headline in Souvenir caps and had to remark sadly that it was well-drawn. Compared to a lot of the homemade stuff on myfonts, etc. now, Souvenir is actually well-crafted. Isn't that sad?

JLT: Thanks so much, PAL, for harping on my marginal involvement with Curlz. Let's get the record straight: When I was still working in print production, just out of school, Steve Matteson would give me small custom type jobs for Monotype. One of them was finishing the character set of Curlz. I probably actually drew 11 of the alphabetic characters and filled out the punctuation. In other words, Steve Matteson is the designer of Curlz. I was a production monkey who finished it, much like my role with Woodtype 3. Not the originator, the slavey.

One way for type designers to get experience is to finish the work others start. Matching someone else's style is good exercise. In fact, that's how new designs come about like Leslie Cabarga's new Casey, and Mark's new Kinescope. They start with example art and fill out the missing pieces. Great skill to have. In the case of Curlz, I never thought it would haunt me all my damn days. What did I do, God? Why am I being punished?...

I'll get you Josh, when you least expect it. >:(

there's nothing wrong with da-font, it's a good place to start and for random inspiration it has sorted me out in the past nicely, just to take this in a different direction: i'd love to see a world without helvetica... now that would be interesting...

(it's nice enough but a bit... meh!)