Over the time many of us spent on the internet, some of us might have come across what is known as a “cursed font.” These rather horrible fonts are prints that make the text come off as eerie to the reader. There are some users who apply these fonts in order to be different or simply to look creepy. But what causes these fonts to be invented in the first place, and how are they able to become such a trend? Let’s explore this!
What Is a Cursed Font?
A cursed font is not a font in the basic way people would expect. Fonts such as arial, or Times new roman possesses many basic elements when designed without being particularly useful or interesting. But a cursed font does the opposite because it employs what one would call screwy imagery for the viewer. The letters would seem to float, overlap, look like they belong to different alphabets, and have odd numerals, unusual markings, or odd spacing.
Such fonts often feature broken or ‘wrong’ text, although many people use them precisely because they appear distinctive. In a substance of similarity, that is, standard and common fonts, that is indeed an effective method to have the text noticed.
Another common space where people come across cursed fonts is social media. Some people try to get attention through cursed fonts in their username or comments. People can do so for free with websites like Lingojam or FontsCopyPaste. All it takes is a couple of clicks and the plain text instantly turns into weird characters.
The Origins of Cursed Fonts
Cursed fonts belong to Unicode. Unicode is a system which makes computers able to apprehend and demonstrate text. It’s not only alphabetic characters but symbols from different languages and other special characters. Combining those characters creates the effect of a strange font – a cursed one.
The first version of the Unicode Standard was published in 1991 and now includes more than 159 modern and historical writing systems. Because Unicode has a huge character set (more than 143,000!), there are so many characters that would appear odd or out of place next to the regular letters looking ordinary. The presence of these symbols in the text is what gives it the ”cursed” effect.
Why Are Cursed Fonts So Popular?
Cursed fonts can catch the user’s attention, and their display will great impact the engagement of the content itself. While it is true that at times it is difficult to capture the user’s attention due to the high volume of content. It has been observed that a large number of audiences will actively engage with Posts comment and everything in between that makes use of a unique and unusual font. On social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter where the user is scrolling quite rapidly, it is mostly the `cursed font’ that captures their attention as it disrupts the flow of the font used across the platform.
In addition to all that, cursed fonts help in creating the right mood and atmosphere. Do you wish to create an eerie or scary feeling? Cursed fonts are capable of achieving everything that you dream off. There is a huge chunk of the population which uses these around Halloween time or when attempting to create unsettling imagery through their text.
Apart from the context, cursed fonts play a significant role in humor too – picture yourself as someone reading a dull formal paragraph in a slightly altered font. The out of the place seriousness combined with the distorted text has the potential to be absurdly funny.
How To Use Cursed Fonts
In the case that you wish to use a cursed font, it is rather a straightforward process – Websites such as Lingojam and FontsCopyPaste enable the cross user to create those fonts in a span of seconds. For your work to be effortless, follow these steps.
- Head over to a website which allows for the generation of cursed fonts such as Lingojam.
- Fill in the field that you wish to modify.
- The webpage will vary your customary writing into cursed font instantly.
- Then the modified text can be pasted into the relevant documents (social accounts, messages and so on).
In addition to that, the social media, text messaging applications and word editors do not have problems displaying cursed fonts since they are based on Unicode. The majority of people agreed that these fonts will work for almost every platform/medium.
Real-Life Uses of Cursed Fonts
Cursed fonts are not only being used by the people. For all we know, marketers and brands have started using them too. A case in point is an apparel brand using cursed fonts for their Halloween campaign back in 2021 to market their brand. Cursed fonts have appeared in memes with the odd text used as part of the comical aspect.
One can also find Cursed fonts in artwork. Digital artists and meme creators incorporate these fonts to emphasize phrases and make them feel dislocated. This creates a distinguished appeal to their works.
The Downside of Cursed Fonts
Cursed Fonts can be playful but they tend to have some setbacks. The primary concern is legibility. Because these fonts combine letters with symbols, they tend to be a headache when reading, more when dealing with widely styled text. This is great for a brief username or statement but may be bothersome when displayed too often.
A few restrictions apply to its use as well in regards to Unicode characters. If you try to paste the text in a place where the use of cursing fonts is not supported, it will display as either a box or a question mark. It is a situation referenced as “tofu” in which the message is garbled because the font used cannot be processed.
One more blunder regarding the fonts is their unavailability to screen readers. As their name suggests, this tool can be helpful for users who are visually impaired as it reads out the text loud. The said effect happens due to the symbols cursing fonts use which can lead to failure in recognition by the screen reading tool thus making the content less readable.
Alternatives to Cursed Fonts
If the thought of using cursed fonts seems inconvenient, there are other alternatives fonts that can be utilized to make the text prominent other than, cursive fonts. Some of these other options include;
- Bold text
- Italic text
- Underlined text
Some other functions offer colored text and different fonts which can add absurdity in an appealing way while considering the focus.
Fun Fact About Cursed Fonts
Here’s something that one would probably not know: A rough example of what could be classified as a distorted font could be seen in archaic Gothic writing. Gothic fonts were invented and early book font styles were used in 15th century books. Some people claim that the being hard to read added a layer of mystique to the text, similar to how cursed font works.
Conclusion
Online cursed font generators work remarkably well for making texts aesthetically pleasing. Cursed font can make your text visually appealing and add a stylistic touch of spookiness or humor to your whatever content you create. The best part is that generates those are free, leave amazing effects while easy to use on many platforms but effective use should be taken care of. In case someone overuses them with one too many resentful fonts, it will make all the text visually unpleasant, and might not be suitable for some applications.
If you have some spare time and have creative visuals in your mind, then go for cursed fonts. But consider your audience too. Not everyone will appreciate reading letters that are all distorted. Still, when it comes to incorporating cursed fonts into your content, moderation is the key.
