The 11 most stupidest fonts of all time

Fonts can be beautifully functional, quietly powerful, and subtly sophisticated. They can also be stonkingly stupid, managing to repulse every creative atom in a creative's body, simply by their essence of 'dumb'.

But what makes a stupid font truly stupid? Pretension? Overuse? Whackiness?!

Well, we've trawled the World Wide Web to find the most idiotic fonts of them all. This may sound like a purely subjective exercise. It's not. These really are the dumbest of the dumb.

11. Shelley Script

Unsurprisingly for a font named after a hypersensitive romantic whinefest, Shelley (pronounced 'Shell-aye') is more than a little affected.

No doubt, the makers of this limp-wristed scrawl would have it used exclusively for deeply personal observations on the fiery throb of unrequited love... We think it's better suited to bum jokes. And even then it looks dumb.

10. Brush Script

It's a 1940s American thing, Brush Script. Well, it should be. But people have been obtusely using it ever since it badly mimicked a human's handwriting in 1942.

Perhaps the zenith of this fat font's stupididness was when it introduced each episode of Neighbours, which, experts have since agreed, became one of the most moronic TV programs of all time as a result. Science!

09. Ransom Note fonts (there are LOADS!)

For sure, the uniformness of Brush Script makes it thunderously 'duh!'. But that doesn't mean that the opposite makes for a clever thing.

Each Ransom Note font – and there are several – is unique. That is, each letter is as uniquely imbecilic as the next. Combined, you can create sentences that will actually lower the IQ of anyone that reads them.

No-one knows the origin of Ransom Note fonts.

08. Arial

To be honest, we don't have anything against Arial. It's unassuming, not-that-elegant, not-that-showy vibe is entirely ignorable.

But speak to any font fan, and before you've exchanged names they'll be regaling you with how this Helvetica/Monotype Grotesque bastard child has been so overused that it has become a symbol for all that is dim-witted.

07. Papyrus

Best known as the favourite font of James Cameron's ancient blue alien people in Avatar, Papyrus is actually a free font that comes on all personal computers.

It may impress a child as a classy text-type from another land, but kids are notoriously bad-brained, and so is this font. Unless you use it to spell out 'David Icke'. It looks pretty cool then.

06. Hobo

The name is daft, the font dafter. It looks like there's a mighty wind coming from starboard side, and all the chunky, funky letters are trying not to fall over.

There's not a straight line in sight, and everyone knows the old saying: 'no straight lines, you’re stupid!'

Next page: five more of the stupidest fonts of all time...