History Main / ForeignLookingFont

* The various forms of Chinese Restaurant Font, collectively called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonton_font "Wonton Font"]] by TheOtherWiki. A Roman font meant to be reminiscent of the strokes of Chinese characters, which graces every Asian restaurant in the universe outside Asia itself. There's even specifically a font called "[[http://www.dafont.com/chinese-takeaway.font Chinese Takeaway]]", ostensibly used for this purpose.

* The blog HanziSmatter have identified the “[[http://hanzismatter.blogspot.de/2006/08/gibberish-asian-font-mystery-solved.html gibberish Asian font]]” that tattoo studios use to “translate” English names into what they claim is Chinese.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Starting in Season 2, printed text takes the form of oddly [[[[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120401142047/mlp/images/c/ca/Snips_and_Snails_on_the_newspaper_S2E23.png distorted]] [[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120204180041/mlp/images/6/65/Rainbow_Dash_holding_Daring_Do_book_S2E16.png English.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Starting in Season 2, printed text takes the form of oddly distorted English. [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120401142047/mlp/images/c/ca/Snips_and_Snails_on_the_newspaper_S2E23.png]][[http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120204180041/mlp/images/6/65/Rainbow_Dash_holding_Daring_Do_book_S2E16.png]]

!Examples:

* Sometime around the Hoenn Saga in the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime, the producers used a faux-Japanese text on signs, letters, etc., to make it more "acceptable" for a global audience.
** It appeared earlier in the series too. It doesn't even try to look Japanese a lot of the time, it looks like mixed up symbols.
* One scene in ''OnePiece'' had a close up of Luffy's first bounty poster. Oddly, in a world that [[WordOfGod speaks English,]] has English signs, and English words ''right on the bounty poster,'' the FinePrint is nothing but a random assortment of letters and characters.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* ''Film/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.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Adolf Kilroy, a tortoise who turned up from time to time in ''ComicStrip/ThePerishers'', not only had Hitler's face but also spoke in Fraktur.

[[folder:Pinball]]
* All of the signs and indicators in the Chinatown portion of ''[[Pinball/LightsCameraAction Lights... Camera... Action!]]'' are lettered with the same psuedo-Asian typeface used in many Chinese restaurants.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In ''TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', 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.

* ''AroundTheWorldIn80Days'' (2004) has this with all the map fonts throughout (eg, Hindi-style script for the Chyrons in India, etc.).

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

* ''VideoGame/TheBannerSaga'' uses a mix of fake and real, but often misused (such as Ur (ᚢ) being used as an N), runes on the map to make it look Norse while still being readable.

* ''TheBannerSaga'' uses a mix of fake and real, but often misused (such as Ur (ᚢ) being used as an N), runes on the map to make it look Norse while still being readable.

* 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.

* The title of {{Animesque}} comic ''Deity'' is rendered on the cover in a font based on Japanese katakana - to the point that it takes a moment to realize you're actually looking at English.
* Used to a great extent in ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}''. The occasional BackwardsR makes something instantly Russian.

[[folder:Fan Works]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''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. The title itself and the opening credits also appear in ForeignLookingFont. No ''real'' Arabic appears in the movie at all, with the possible exception of a sign over Jafar's door; it's either English in a foreign-looking font or random scribbles that look like what Arabic looks like to people who don't speak Arabic. (Arabic Is Just A Bunch Of Scribbles should be a trope.)
[[/folder]]

* TypeONegative's ''Dead Again'' album cover uses MockCyrillic.

*** [[IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade In the Latin alphabet, "Jehovah" begins with an I...]]

* When {{Those Wacky Nazis}} created an art exhibition to brainwash their people into believing that all Jews were not only {{Greedy Jew}}s, but also [[AlwaysChaoticEvil dishonest, disloyal and murderous]] {{Dirty Communists}}, their exhibition bore a [[https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_119-03-16-06,_München,_Ausstellung_%22Der_ewige_Jude%22.jpg logo that looks like Hebrew script]] but reads "Der ewige Jude" (German for "The eternal Jew").

* When {{Those Wacky Nazis}} created an art exhibition to brainwash their people into believing that all Jews were not only {{Greedy Jew}}s, but also [[AlwaysChaoticEvil dishonest, disloyal and murderous]] {{Dirty Communists}}, their exhibition bore a [[https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_119-03-16-06,_München,_Ausstellung_%22Der_ewige_Jude%22.jpg logo that looks like Hebrew script]] but reads "Der ewige Jude" (German for "The eternal Jew").

* Used extensively in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'', not only for writing but also in the SpeechBubbles of characters speaking foreign languages. 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 tend to get into Trajan-esque capitals when getting eloquent (with V replacing U). Attempts by characters to speak another language are often shown as written in the appropriate font, but jumbled-up or ragged.

Compare TheBackwardsR. See TranslationConvention for the spoken version. This is the visual equivalent of JustAStupidAccent. If the font is so weird that you can't make out what the letters are meant to be, it's {{Wingdinglish}}.

* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' commonly uses vaguely Cyrillic-looking letters when ''NikolaiDante'' is on the cover.
* ''{{Thor}}'' writers like to give his dialogue a calligraphic font.

* In ''BlueBeetle'', the Scarab-speak letters correspond to English, but they're almost entirely illegible. However, when the Scarab gets CharacterDevelopment, the letters change into more readable English while still invoking the previous version.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Turn Left", the signs saying [[spoiler:Bad Wolf]] are in English but in a Chinese-looking font.
** In ''The Fires of Pompeii'', all writing is rendered in English in a Latin-looking font.
** Justified in-universe, as the TARDIS automatically translates languages, both spoken and written, into the language the companion speaks.
*** Hold on - English *is* written in a Latin-looking font, one that looks so Latin-looking it's actually *called* Latin.
* In the ''Doctor Who'' episode "The End of the World", "Have a Nice Day" is seen on the Doctor's parking/valet ticket for the Tardis, in an extremely stylised 'futurefont', echoed in various other writings seen in that episode.

Compare TheBackwardsR. See TranslationConvention for the spoken version. This is the visual equivalent of JustAStupidAccent. Some "sketchier"-looking fonts can fall into UnfortunateImplications. If the font is so weird that you can't make out what the letters are meant to be, it's {{Wingdinglish}}.

*** When someone is speaking Klatchian, they have the whole sentence in the pseudo-Arabic font. When they're speaking Morporkian with a Klatchian accent, the letter that changes font is usually an H. If you actually know anything about Arabic, this is a bit of a BilingualBonus, because there are three Arabic letters that can be transliterated as H, and they all sound different.

* Used extensively in ''{{Asterix}}'', not only for writing but also in the SpeechBubbles of characters speaking foreign languages. 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 tend to get into Trajan-esque capitals when getting eloquent (with V replacing U). Attempts by characters to speak another language are often shown as written in the appropriate font, but jumbled-up or ragged.

* TheBackwardsR may give a good impression of Russianness, but for a double whammy, combine it with a font like Rodchenko or Pravda to get over-the-top hammy Sovietness. If you want Ye Olde Russiane instead, consider using the Old Church Slavonic script (Latin versions of it can be found online).

* TheBackwardsR may give a good impression of Russianness, but for a double whammy, combine it with a font like Rodchenko or Pravda to get over-the-top hammy Sovietness. If you want Ye Olde Russiane instead, consider using the Old Church Slavonic script.

* TheBackwardsR may give a good impression of Russianness, but for a double whammy, combine it with a font like Rodchenko or Pravda to get over-the-top hammy Sovietness.

** Its overuse is such that the font-fetishising graphic design community can be roughly split into "people who [[http://xkcd.com/590/ hate Papyrus]]" and "[[{{Firefly}} Browncoats]]".

* The title of Brain Clevinger's ''HowIKilledYourMaster'' is written in English, but is easily mistaken for Kanji at first glance.

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