Distressed Gemup 3 is a very light, very narrow, medium contrast, upright, short x-height font.
Keywords: horror titles, dark fantasy, album covers, poster headlines, game ui, occult, handmade, primitive, eerie, folkloric, atmosphere, handwritten grit, ancient inscription, unease, worldbuilding, spiky, scratchy, angular, jagged, runic.
A scratchy, hand-drawn display face built from thin, slightly wavering strokes with frequent sharp corners and tapered terminals. Letterforms feel narrow and tall, with irregular widths and lively baseline drift that create an uneven rhythm in text. Counters are small and sometimes angular, with several glyphs suggesting cut-in notches and pointed joins rather than smooth curves. The overall texture reads like ink or a fine marker dragged quickly, producing uneven edges and occasional hook-like endings.
Best suited to short, high-impact text where texture and mood are more important than neutrality—such as horror and dark-fantasy titles, poster headlines, book or zine covers, and album artwork. It can also work for in-world labeling in games (maps, spells, artifacts) when used sparingly and at generous sizes for clarity.
The font carries a ritualistic, ominous tone—somewhere between improvised runes and a horror title scrawl. Its spiky silhouettes and erratic rhythm create tension and a sense of unease, while the handmade quality keeps it personal and story-driven rather than mechanical. It evokes folklore, dark fantasy, and weathered inscriptions.
The design appears intended to mimic a quick, distressed hand with sharp, rune-like construction—prioritizing atmosphere and character over typographic regularity. Its narrow, spiky forms and uneven stroke behavior are geared toward expressive display use where a tense, eerie voice is needed.
Uppercase and lowercase share a consistent scratch-pen logic, with lowercase forms often simplified and linear. Numerals follow the same angular, hand-notated style, remaining legible while retaining the distressed, improvised feel. In longer lines, the irregular spacing and narrow proportions produce a dense, wiry texture that is most effective at larger sizes.