Copperplate Gothic… I admit I’m not nearly as assaulted by its presence but I suspect now that it’s entered my consciousness, I will be bombarded relentlessly.

It’s understandably hated by designers due to being commonly used by amateurs to make their text more expressive, and they have a limited selection of fonts to choose from (just what they see in the droplist in Word).

When I look at it, I get the impression it is intended to convey a child’s printing, and if I was working on something where having text simulate a child’s printing was called for, I would briefly consider Comic Sans. Of course, I’d come to the same conclusion as I would with any font that attempts to be “organic” — it looks too fake, unless you used a very small number of words and no letter is repeated. As soon as the same letter is used twice, the illusion is destroyed, and the reader may think, “Hey, that’s not written by hand, that’s just a damn dirty font! Cheater!”

People shouldn’t worry about Comic Sans though. The real font to despise is Copperplate Gothic. Bundled with MS Office, this font is a favourite of desktop publishers everywhere. I defy you to drive by a strip mall and not notice at least one store with signage in Copperplate Gothic. It’s everywhere, and our lives are worse for it.