Distressed Obzu 4 is a regular weight, narrow, medium contrast, upright, short x-height font.
Keywords: posters, book covers, halloween, game titles, album art, grungy, spooky, hand-inked, vintage print, quirky, evoke wear, add texture, create drama, handmade feel, roughened, speckled, blotty, organic, weathered.
A narrow, upright display face with calligraphic skeletons and irregular, distressed contours. Strokes show medium contrast with tapered ends and occasional ink-like blots, chips, and speckling that break the outlines. Curves are slightly uneven and lively rather than geometric, with a gently fluctuating rhythm across the alphabet. Counters stay mostly open and legible, while terminals and joins exhibit deliberate roughness that suggests worn printing or dry-brush inking.
Best suited to short display settings where texture can be appreciated—posters, title cards, packaging accents, and themed branding. It performs well for horror, mystery, fantasy, or vintage-inspired concepts, and works as a characterful secondary type paired with a cleaner text face.
The overall tone is haunted and theatrical, blending old-world storybook charm with a gritty, worn edge. Its rough texture reads as handmade and imperfect, giving headlines an ominous, playful, or macabre flavor depending on context.
The design appears intended to evoke a worn, inked look—like letterforms printed from a rough plate or drawn with a dry brush—while remaining readable in headline sizes. It prioritizes atmosphere and tactile texture over neutrality, creating a distinctive voice for themed, dramatic typography.
The distressed treatment is consistent across capitals, lowercase, and numerals, with visible edge erosion and occasional interior specks that add texture at larger sizes. Narrow proportions and slightly idiosyncratic letterforms create a compact, attention-grabbing silhouette that benefits from generous tracking and clear size to keep the texture from cluttering.