THE WORD
26 A “bad” typeface?
THERE IS EASY ACCESS to font creation tools, so anyone who has a mind to try his or her hand at type design can do so. That said, it is surprising that almost all of the 90,000 or so typefaces that are digitally available today (and the vast majority of these are display typefaces) are useful for some purpose, even if it is an obscure one. There are many typefaces that are deliberately amorphous or naive or do not follow the niceties of traditional type design. But if a typeface has qualities that make it fit for even one situation, can it be considered a “bad” typeface? Type is a matter of taste; in the ninth century, uncials were descried as ugly; in the eighteenth century, Bodoni was ridiculed.
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