Font Police is patrolling the world for bad typography. We issue misdemeanours for spelling mistakes and lengthy sentences in our criticisms.

This is a light-hearted humour site, with no offence intended. Send ideas to submissions@ followed by fontpolice.org. (Please indicate if you would prefer to be anonymous.)

Heil bag We posted a similar warning years ago: be very careful about scripts, especially if the first two lowercase letters can be read as a capital one. Cross strokes should also be substantial enough so they are not hidden against a white...

Heil bag We posted a similar warning years ago: be very careful about scripts, especially if the first two lowercase letters can be read as a capital one. Cross strokes should also be substantial enough so they are not hidden against a white background. Hat tip to Brady Dyer.

Breaking news What’s wrong with this headline? It’s not a slanted roman, so that’s a good sign (although one wonders why italicization was needed). It’s the electronic condensing—again. Not really excusable when there are decent condensed headline...

Breaking news What’s wrong with this headline? It’s not a slanted roman, so that’s a good sign (although one wonders why italicization was needed). It’s the electronic condensing—again. Not really excusable when there are decent condensed headline cuts out there. Shared by John Bull (@garius) on Twitter, who also came up with the title (we couldn’t think of a better one), with original photograph by RA from Aberdeen.

generally-clueless: “ youthxcrew69: “what the FUCK is this supposed to say ” Jesus @fontpolice Will this fuckery never end? ” Deserves a grilling Found by @generally-clueless: if you expect people to make sense of words then it pays to group them...

generally-clueless:

youthxcrew69:

what the FUCK is this supposed to say 

Jesus @fontpolice

Will this fuckery never end?

Deserves a grilling Found by @generally-clueless: if you expect people to make sense of words then it pays to group them more carefully, and uses spaces properly. However, we can’t figure out what this is meant to say even if the words were properly grouped. Points off, too, for not optically justifying the text.


Posted at 9.07 am

Spacing is important We have often looked at bad kerning at Font Police. The First Baptist Church in Newton says this is intentional, and we believe them. However, there are still some problems with the way the letters are spaced: the visual gaps...

Spacing is important We have often looked at bad kerning at Font Police. The First Baptist Church in Newton says this is intentional, and we believe them. However, there are still some problems with the way the letters are spaced: the visual gaps aren’t equal. This highlights the problem of using actual spaces rather than adjusting the tracking, which would have preserved the original kerning pairs.

Fai7ed Submitted by Rick McGowan: the season hasn’t even started yet, and they’ve already run out of Ls. Inverted digits are not capital letters—it’s not just the shape that’s wrong, but numbers are shorter, too. We think the league needs an extra...

Fai7ed Submitted by Rick McGowan: the season hasn’t even started yet, and they’ve already run out of Ls. Inverted digits are not capital letters—it’s not just the shape that’s wrong, but numbers are shorter, too. We think the league needs an extra set of letters to avoid being caught by the Font Police. Photographed at Robert Holman Field, Campbell, Calif.

Wallbank contracted We see quite a few examples of these: when putting lettering on sliding doors, have a think about where that door will wind up.

Wallbank contracted We see quite a few examples of these: when putting lettering on sliding doors, have a think about where that door will wind up.

White influencers Found by @laquisharedfern: if you have to force a line-break, then do so. We’re also concerned by the lack of kerning in Gotham Medium—it comes with really good kerning pairs, but they’re missing in this headline.

White influencers Found by @laquisharedfern: if you have to force a line-break, then do so. We’re also concerned by the lack of kerning in Gotham Medium—it comes with really good kerning pairs, but they’re missing in this headline.

Speechless CNN is obsessed with cramming as much into the black-on-white line as possible, which results in the artificial condensing of Helvetica. We suggest they switch to a condensed cut so they don’t wind up with a line where the horizontal...

Speechless CNN is obsessed with cramming as much into the black-on-white line as possible, which results in the artificial condensing of Helvetica. We suggest they switch to a condensed cut so they don’t wind up with a line where the horizontal strokes are thicker than the vertical ones—a typographical no-no. If they do that, we’d overlook the use of ASCII apostrophes in place of proper ones. (Image from Shauna on Twitter.)

It’s come again We’ve said it before: if there is likely to be confusion through the replacement of one character with an image, then don’t delete the character. The figure here could have worked equally well alongside the words. (What is the figure...

It’s come again We’ve said it before: if there is likely to be confusion through the replacement of one character with an image, then don’t delete the character. The figure here could have worked equally well alongside the words. (What is the figure doing, incidentally? Is that a saxophone or is he happy to see us?) Originally posted by DrMcIntire on Reddit, hat tip to Rachel Russell.

Thgie We’ve featured upside-down glyphs before, but not on the 18th floor of a high-rise under construction in Melbourne, Victoria. If you’re going to screw up to this extent, it is advisable not to do so in such large letters and so high up. Posted...

Thgie We’ve featured upside-down glyphs before, but not on the 18th floor of a high-rise under construction in Melbourne, Victoria. If you’re going to screw up to this extent, it is advisable not to do so in such large letters and so high up. Posted by Damn Nolan on Twitter, used with permission.