Spooky Riba 12 is a regular weight, narrow, medium contrast, upright, normal x-height font.
Keywords: horror titles, halloween promos, posters, game ui, album art, ominous, occult, menacing, chaotic, gothic, horror atmosphere, eerie texture, headline impact, dark branding, jagged, thorny, distressed, spiky, rough.
A jagged, distressed display face built from narrow letterforms with sharp, thorn-like protrusions and irregular contours. Strokes taper to needle points and frequently break into rough edges, creating a torn silhouette while maintaining clear, mostly upright structure. Counters tend to be small and uneven, and the overall rhythm is intentionally unsettled, with noticeable glyph-to-glyph variability that reads as hand-gnarled rather than mechanically uniform.
Best suited for short, high-impact typography such as horror and Halloween headlines, movie or game titles, event posters, and cover art where atmosphere matters more than neutrality. It can also work for badges, labels, and UI moments that call for an intentionally unsettling display voice, especially when set large and with ample spacing.
The font projects an ominous, ritualistic tone—part horror title card, part arcane inscription. Its spikes and ragged terminals create a sense of tension and danger, lending text an eerie, aggressive energy suited to dark or supernatural themes.
The design appears intended to simulate a corrupted, spined lettering style—like carved, clawed, or weathered forms—while keeping recognizable Latin shapes for quick headline legibility. Its consistent use of needle-like terminals and rough erosion suggests a deliberate balance between readability and aggressive texture.
At larger sizes the texture and pointed terminals are a defining feature; in longer passages the distressed edges can visually accumulate, so generous tracking and line spacing help preserve clarity. Numerals match the same torn, spined construction, keeping a consistent mood across alphanumerics.