Distressed Gelud 1 is a light, normal width, high contrast, upright, short x-height font.
Keywords: horror posters, album art, game titles, halloween, zines, eerie, scratchy, handmade, chaotic, grunge, distress, unease, diy, rawness, texture, ragged, inked, spiky, uneven, brittle.
A wiry, hand-drawn Latin with thin, high-contrast strokes and visibly ragged contours. Letterforms are loosely constructed with uneven stroke pressure, frequent tapering, and occasional blots and hooks that create a torn-ink edge. Curves look slightly angular and wobble as if sketched quickly, while verticals often appear pinched or splintered. Spacing and widths vary noticeably across the set, reinforcing an irregular rhythm; counters are sometimes narrow or lopsided, and terminals tend to end in sharp, scratch-like points.
Best suited to short display settings where texture is a feature: headlines for horror or thriller promotion, game title cards, album/mixtape graphics, and gritty editorial or zine-style layouts. It can also work for on-screen captions or pull quotes when a distressed, uneasy voice is desired, but it will read busy in small sizes or dense paragraphs.
The overall tone feels unsettling and volatile—more scribbled than written—evoking horror ephemera, occult notes, or distressed DIY graphics. Its jittery texture and inconsistent polish read as intentionally rough and expressive rather than refined or formal.
The design appears intended to mimic nervous pen or brush marks with deliberate degradation—irregular edges, inconsistent stroke weight, and unstable geometry—so text carries an immediate sense of tension and handmade authenticity.
Uppercase shapes stay broadly recognizable but carry asymmetries and rough infill that make them feel weathered. Lowercase is simpler and more skeletal, with small, shaky forms and occasional exaggerated descenders (notably in letters like g, j, and y). Numerals follow the same scratchy construction, with open, irregular bowls and sharp turns that keep the texture consistent in mixed text.