Ah, Papyrus. Sometimes the best that is said about this creature is, “well, at least it’s not Comic Sans.” Which is true. But wait!
Having arrived here in some manner, you have likely seen the banner on this page. Which employs Papyrus. Of course, the text is secondary to the artwork. And yet. The pros and cons of using Papyrus in my banner have not kept me up at night (particularly since the beasts in my bathroom cupboard do a fine job in this area), but I have still waffled about whether to keep it up there. Here also is my similar Etsy banner:
The Slumbering Herd Etsy Banner
Ever have a favorite song, and then your roommate played it 2,356 times a day? …Was it still your favorite? Or did it make you want to repeatedly smack your head against the wall? (or your roommates head…) If you think Papyrus is pretty, that doesn’t mean us designers think you have bad taste. You just probably haven’t heard that song as many times as we have!
I thanked her heartily in the thread because this, finally, was a good explanation (without the snark). A couple folks visited my banner-with-Papyrus and said it fit my style of artwork. Not sure if those were designers or not. Probably not. But that’s ok! I’m not quite sure what sort of audience this blog is intended for, but “designers” probably wouldn’t be in the top 5 100. Which is not to say some might stumble in while acting in another capacity.
I have since asked a few other folks to take a gander, and none have been horrified by my use of the dreaded Papyrus. However, I have gotten conflicting advice of another sort. If I’m using Papyrus for my title, then the secondary text should be in a different font. So I changed it, thinking that was pretty fine advice and that the slightly cleaner font for the rest looked quite nice! And then another design person said omg, if you’re using Papyrus, then use it for ALL the banner text. Well, pfffft. I haven’t changed it back yet. Still undecided.
In another, tangentially related note, I am still trying to unlearn that whole two-spaces-after-a-period nonsense. Which does not do nice things to blog posts, for one thing. Arrgh.
Do you have an opinion about this highly-charged topic? Please share it! And thanks for dropping in – if you have a moment, let me know how you ended up here!