Why Designers HATE Papyrus

In a homage to my post about Why Designers HATE Comic Sans, I am going to go and look at another member of the design worlds reviled font’s collection. Seriously folks, I swear this font was BORN to be loathed by designers everywhere. It’s incredibly tacky in a horrible kitschy way and it should never be used anywhere, certainly not in professional production pieces (Avatar, I am looking at you here). And if the Avatar clue hadn’t given it away already, Ladies and Gentlemen for your delectable Hatred, I present to you, the Font PAPYRUS.

Image via Wikipedia

God, You could not pick out a worse font if you tried. Papyrus. Look at that wonderful example of the kind of font that is used by people with no design sense. Now in my post on Comic Sans, I at least managed to say that Comic Sans has it’s uses and can be quite effective if it’s used properly in the right places. And it does suffer from over use, But Papyrus here is another classic example of an overused font, but unlike Comic Sans, this font doesn’t have any use.

Overly Tacky, Gimmicky, a Single use font that you see on the signs of Hippy Shops and in places trying to seem “Cool” and “Well designed”. I see this in your logo, I don’t enter your shop.

So let’s get down to brass tacks and tell you something about this font. This particular Font face was designed in 1982 by Chris Costello, (who himself admits that Papyrus is overused). It was designed to mix the distinctive characteristics of Roman Characters with the drawn look of beautiful calligraphy. And it does both of those things rather well.

But while it might be a well designed font, it is not a good font at all. And if anything it’s almost as overused as Comic Sans.

It has this attraction to churches and yoga/women’s health clubs as well as Hippy and Health Stores.

Please people, consign this font to the bin of life, we don’t need to see more of it in use.

Dave, the burner of Papyrus

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Why Designers HATE Comic Sans.

Talk to any graphic designer and you will get this repeated again and again. We HATE Comic Sans, and when I say HATE what I really mean is MEGA-LOATHE Comic Sans. The Abomination Font. The Pariah of the Design world. At once one of the most popular fonts in the world but also the most hated.

But what a lot of people don’t understand is why designers hate the font so much. (And FYI, the following can also be applied to Papyrus and that cursed font Bleeding Cowboys).

Ok, before I start lambasting the damn font, I may as well argue both sides of the coin and give you all a little bit of information about said font.

Image via Wikipedia

Comic Sans in its original incarnation was a typeface used by the American comics industry (hence the slightly obvious name) and was included in Windows 95 and everything since then. It was designed to imitate the look of comic book lettering for use in, and this is the really important bit, informal documents.

And on that last bit is exactly where it all falls apart. Informal documents.

Designers of any calibre will all tell you that each font or typeface you choose to use in a design such match the tone or type of the design. Serious signs should use serious typefaces, just like serious documents or informative documents.

Designers of any calibre will also tell you that actually they don’t really hate Comic Sans, instead what we as a group loathe about Comic Sans is the fact that people insist on using it everywhere, even when it is not appropriate, for now better reason that “because it looks fun”.

Comic Sans is a font for school children and silly little things. And It’s not even a particularly attractive font at that. Yet everyone seems to have this idea stuck in their heads that Comic Sans is a great font that can be used to spice up an otherwise boring document. WRONG.

 “You think I’m pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don’t all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can’t all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type”

– Mike Lacher writing from Comic Sans Viewpoint

Mike might be right, you aren’t all designers, and you don’t have Fonts like Helvetica sitting around on your PC, but guess what you do have. Calibri, Sans Serif, and even at a push ARIAL.

Start using grown up fonts, and stop using Comic Sans because you think it makes your stuff quirky or cool. Because it doesn’t. It simply makes you an ASSHOLE. (Papyrus makes you a Double Asshole)

Dave, the Forger of Fonts

PS. I’m back early and Fueled up with Coffee like some Caffeinated Hell Machine. Brace Yourselves