History Main / ForeignLookingFont

* In the ''DoctorWho'' episode "Turn Left", the signs saying [[spoiler:Bad Wolf]] are in English but in a Chinese-looking font.

* Look hard enough and you'll find fonts in fake Hebrew, fake Arabic, fake Japanese... I think there's even a fake Greek one.

** A fake Korean font exists. Fooled me once.

* The Chinese Restaurant Font. You know the one. The cuneiform-on-crack abomination that graces every Asian restaurant in the universe outside Asia itself. Looks about as Asian as John Wayne playing Genghis Khan. In fact, [[CoconutEffect the only reason people think it looks "Asian"]] (or "[[AllAsiansAreAlike Chinese]]") is that it [[ShapedLikeItself looks like that "Asian" font all those Chinese restaurants use]].
** This font has an Asian equivalent in what one might call "fake Western serifs". The covers of some well-known English-language classics that are translated into Japanese, such as works by James Joyce, sometimes feature Japanese characters with Western-style serifs clearly intended to give them a European look. The effect is eerie. In contrast to the completely fake-looking "Asian" font used in Western countries, these fonts actually manage to resemble Latin serifs.
*** [[http://www.akibatec.net/wabunfont/library/dynafont/design.html#ugaso Here's an example]] of one such font, for the curious.

* ''[[QuantumOfSolace]]'' used exotic fonts to label each country the story takes place in. {{Maddox}} criticized this use of the trope in his review of it, saying that its use crossed the line into pretentious and implies that ViewersAreMorons.

* The French cover (but not the English cover) of ''[[{{Tintin}} Land of the Black Gold]]'' has the words "L'or Noir" written in pseudo-Arabic calligraphy. The Arabic writing underneath is a correct translation of the title (though it wasn't in the first edition).

** Similarly, symbols denoting curse words also change appearance based on the language the character speaks.

* In ''{{Quake}} II'', all the Strogg text is in stylized English, while in ''Quake 4'', it's in {{Wingdinglish}}.

* Sometime around the Hoenn Saga in the ''{{Pokémon}}'' anime, the producers used a faux-Japanese text on signs, letters, etc., to make it more "acceptable" for a global audience.

Compare TheBackwardsR. See TranslationConvention for the spoken version. This is the visual equivalent of JustAStupidAccent.

** The title itself and the opening credits also appear in ForeignLookingFont.

* Inverted in "Superdupont vs. Bruce Lee" cartoon by ''((Gotlib))''. Superdupont uses the usual comic SymbolSwearing, peppered with some Chinese-looking symbols. Bruce Lee retorts with the same swearing symbols-only the Chinese add-ons are replaced with ABCDEF.
** Same author, "No Japonaise". The gag is played straight (to hell and back, that is) ending with stepdancing little green man.

* Inverted in Gotlib's "Superdupont vs. Bruce Lee" cartoon. Superdupont uses the usual comic SymbolSwearing, peppered with some Chinese-looking symbols.
Bruce Lee retorts with the same swearing symbols — only the Chinese add-ons are replaced with ABCDEF.

** ''Asterix the Legionary'' features an Egyptian named Ptenisnet who speaks in hieroglyphs and must have an interpreter in order for [[strike:the reader]] anyone to understand him. (His name is a drawing of a tennis net.) He is interpreted by a polyglot clerk who speaks all [[strike:fonts]] languages.

** ''Asterix'' is absolutely in love with this trope, Egyptians speak in hieroglyphics, Normans in the suitably Scandanavian-styled alphabet (with å and ø for a and o), Greeks uses the proto-Greek angular font, the Goths in Blackletter, the Amerindians in pictographs, and Romans tends to get into Romanesque capitals when getting eloquent (with V replacing U).

* In {{The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen}}, most non-English speech is actually rendered in the original language. In the case of the Martians, their language is depicted using heavily-distorted mirror writing.

* Inverted in Gotlib's "Superdupont vs. Bruce Lee" cartoon. Superdupont uses
the usual comic SymbolSwearing, peppered with some Chinese-looking symbols.
Bruce Lee retorts with the same swearing symbols - only the Chinese add-ons
are replaced with ABCDEF.

* PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' has both: although lots of texts appear 'properly' written in JRRTolkien's constructed scripts for Middle-earth, various instances of text are rendered as English in Latin letters for the convenience of the viewer, but made to look vaguely like the scripts they are supposed to be. Most notable is probably the Tengwar-imitating font (an originally Elven script, but universally used), even down to the ''tehtar'' diacritics, which in proper Tengwar are vowel signs and here are added to the corresponding vowel letters.

* In the {{Discworld}} books, TerryPratchett sometimes plays with this. For example, in ''{{Discworld/Jingo}}'', dialogue in Klatchian is written in an Arabic font, and words written by the golems are in an archaic font, to invoke their background in Judaic myth.

** In "Feet of Clay", the Golems use the Hebrewish looking font. I "Making Money", Golems use the Eochian alphabet created/discovered by Doctor John Dee, astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I.
** Überwaldian is shown with a gothic font.

* The ''ThursdayNext'' series features an ancient prophet who speaks "Old English"... i.e. his dialogue is written in Old English font. One character can undertand him (as well as the reader, of course), but the rest really do behave as though he were speaking an ancient dialect.

*** Except Welsh. Apparently even the TARDIS can't understand Welsh, though the Doctor can. (it doesn't translate the name of the power plant [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_Town_%28Doctor_Who%29 in "Boomtown"]])

** ''PhantasyStar Online'' also uses its own signature font for English- it's a bit easier to read than the ''Zelda'' example.

* In ''{{Quake}} II'', all the Strogg text is in stylized English, while in ''4'', it's in {{Wingdinglish}}.
* Raw Thrills' movie tie-in arcade racer ''The Fast and The Furious: DRIFT'' (Tokyo got forgotten, apparently) takes this to a rediculous level. The menus are outright padded with it and every sign and billboard has at least some.

[[AC:WebComics]]
* {{Sinfest}} renders The Buddha's (very few) spoken lines in a font that mimics Sanskrit.

* ''{{Disney/Aladdin}}'': ''Crazy Hakim's Discount Fertilizer'' is written in Arabic brushstrokes on a sign near a cart of manure near the end of the "One Jump" chase scene.

* DCComics is fond of its use of "Interlac", a universal language of the future which naturally just looks the Latin alphabet redone in some "spacey font".

** A fake Hindi font exits in which the letters are just written curvier and have a line on top.
* The absolute king of this trope is Papyrus. It's generically foreign looking enough that it can stand in for nearly anything, from Greek, to Middle Eastern, to Chinese. Papyrus is overused to the point where there's a [[http://www.papyruswatch.com/ blog]] dedicated to looking for it.

* The Chinese Restaurant Font. You know the one. The cuneiform-on-crack abomination that graces every Asian restaurant in the universe outside of Asia itself. Looks about as Asian as John Wayne playing Genghis Khan. In fact, [[CoconutEffect the only reason people think it looks "Asian"]] (or "[[AllAsiansAreAlike Chinese]]") is because it [[ShapedLikeItself looks like that "Asian" font all those Chinese restaurants use]].
** This font has an Asian equivalent in what one might call "fake Western serifs." The covers of some well-known English-language classics that are translated into Japanese, such as works by James Joyce, sometimes feature Japanese characters with Western-style serifs clearly intended to give them a European look. The effect is eerie. In contrast to the completely fake-looking "Asian" font used in Western countries, these fonts actually manage to resemble Latin serifs.

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