History Main / FontAnachronism

* In ''Film/PublicEnemies'', as John Dillinger and his associates leave the red train car, the car number seen on the outside of the car is in the Helvetica font, which was not created until 1957.

* During a political scandal in Pakistan, [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/07/12/the_font_calibri_is_playing_a_surprising_role_in_a_pakistani_scandal.html a selection of documents]] revolving around Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif purported to have been written in February 2006 were suspected as being forgeries because the font they were written in, Calibri, wasn't released publicly until May of that same year. Pakistan soon found itself [[{{Pun}} sans Sharif]].

-->"If you make a period piece, you shouldn't use a font from the Futura! I mean, what the Helvetica were they thinking? Arial typographer would never allow this to happen! I ought to slug those Wingdings for the Myriad of ways they have failed."

* The movie ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'' is a film-noir throwback taking place in the 1940s. A brochure shown in the film is written in Blippo, invented in 1969

* The use of ''any'' recognizable font for signage that, at the time, would have been hand-painted rather than printed, or cut by hand rather than by a machine. Though there are modern fonts that are modeled after hand-painted signs from various eras, close enough to pass for the real thing as long as the sign doesn't look [[UncannyValley too perfect]]. (And if you're making a video game, good luck justifying the time or budget for hand-lettering every sign at a realistic scale.) Commercial vehicles are especially problematic since old-style hand painted signwriting was permanent, most cars used in movies are rented, and vinyl lettering instead is pretty obvious.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_(typeface) What's the big deal? It's only a couple hundred years off.]]]]

* The use of ''any'' recognizable font for signage that, at the time, would have been hand-painted rather than printed, or cut by hand rather than by a machine. Though there are modern fonts that are modeled after hand-painted signs from various eras, close enough to pass for the real thing as long as the sign doesn't look [[UncannyValley too perfect]]. (And if you're making a video game, good luck justifying the time or budget for hand-lettering every sign at a realistic scale.)
** Commercial vehicles are especially problematic since old-style hand painted signwriting was permanent, most cars used in movies are rented, and vinyl lettering instead is pretty obvious.

* In ''Film/ForrestGump'' the letter from Apple Computer is dated 21 September 1975. The font used on the logo, Apple Garamond, wasn't used by Apple until the launch of the Macintosh in 1984. The font was only designed in 1977.
** For that matter, the rainbow Apple logo was first used in May 1977.

* In ''Series/MadMen'', the sign on the original Sterling Cooper building is Gill Sans, which was not in popular use in the United States until the 1970s (of course, it's not ''impossible'', since Gill Sans was released in 1928 and was popular in its native Britain from the 1930s onward--and Bert Cooper is enough of an eccentric to use an unusual font on his building). There are other future fonts, mainly in shots of print ads: Fenice (1980), Balmoral (1978), ITC Kabel (1975), Bookman Old Style (1989), Zapfino (1998), and Gotham (2002) (although this one is tricky, since Gotham ''intentionally'' mimics older the styles of public-building lettering in New York from the 1930s to the 1960s). Of course, there were similar fonts--sometimes quite similar--to all of these in existence in the 1960s; presumably, this was a measure to save time and money.
** Notably, the first episode of the show features an advertisement in the aforementioned Zapfino.

* Some works feature the usage of lowercase letterforms--or, worse, upper- and lower-case forms used together with their modern meaning--when they did not exist yet. [[note]] Charlemagne created Carolingian minuscules circa 771 AD. Lowercase letters came after around the 15th century. A period piece that takes place before these times and uses lowercase letters unwittingly triggers this trope.[[/note]]

* Some works feature the usage of lowercase[[note]]Technically "minuscule", since the terms "upper case" and "lower case" refer specifically to typesetting[[/note]] letterforms--or, worse, upper- and lower-case forms used together with their modern meaning--when they did not exist yet. [[note]] Charlemagne created Carolingian minuscules circa 771 AD. Lowercase letters came after around the 15th century. A period piece that takes place before these times and uses lowercase letters unwittingly triggers this trope.[[/note]]

* Some works feature the usage of lowercase[[note]]Techically “minuscule”, since the terms “upper case” and “lower case” refer specifically to typesetting[[/note]] letterforms--or, worse, upper- and lower-case forms used together with their modern meaning--when they did not exist yet. [[note]] Charlemagne created Carolingian minuscules circa 771 AD. Lowercase letters came after around the 15th century. A period piece that takes place before these times and uses lowercase letters unwittingly triggers this trope.[[/note]]

* The movie ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'' is a film-noir throwback taking place in the 1920s. A brochure shown in the film is written in Blippo, invented in 1969

** For that matter, the rainbow Apple logo was first used in May 1976.

* The film ''Film/{{Chocolat}}'' features a poster whose words are typed in ITC Benguiat, a typeface invented in 1978 (and best known today as the ''Series/StrangerThings'' logo font). Unfortunately, the movie takes place in the 1950s, which means ITC Benguiat wasn't invented yet.

* ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' features Helvetica (invented 45 years later) on some of the gauges on the ship. Titanic takes place in 1912. The current Helvetica font does resemble some proto-Helvetica fonts in existence in 1912, so it's not too egregious an error.

** Notably, the ''first episode'' of the show features an advertisement in the aforementioned Zapfino.
* In the series ''[[Series/DavincisDemons DaVinci's Demons]]'', the typeface Gotham (2002) is seen on a Renaissance building. If the font mimicked historical styles, we could maybe give it a pass, but sans-serif styles didn't ''exist'' until the late 18th century. Gotham was based on popular types of the 1930s.

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'', the typeface on the intel collectible does not appear to be written on a typewriter or a basic word processor; the font is much more advanced than its time. This is but one tick mark in a [[http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:CoD_addict/Anachronisms_in_Call_of_Duty:_Black_Ops long, long list of glaring anachronisms in the game.]]
* The ''VideoGame/BioShock'' games set in Rapture use Century Gothic extensively, including in the logos. True, it was based on the typeface [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Century_%28typeface%29 Twentieth Century,]] which was around by the 1940s, but there are modern implementations of that, so why not just use it? (Or Futura, which is a more accurate approximation and was also around by then.) [[WildMassGuessing Maybe some enterprising designer who moved to Rapture]] [[AllohistoricalAllusion happened to invent a font that looked just like it?]]

* During a political scandal in Pakistan, [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/07/12/the_font_calibri_is_playing_a_surprising_role_in_a_pakistani_scandal.html A selection of documents]] revolving around Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif purported to have been written in 2006 were suspected as being forgeries because the font they were written in, Calibri, didn't exist in Microsoft Word until the following year.

"If you make a period piece, you shouldn't use a font from the Futura! I mean, what the Helvetica were they thinking? Arial typographer would never allow this to happen! I ought to slug those Wingdings for the Myriad of ways they have failed."

* The movie ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'' is a film-noir throwback taking place in the 1920s. A brochure shown in the film is written in Blippo, which wasn't invented till the 1970s.

* ''Series/TheCrown2016'': An unusual one relating to Arabic script. Arabic-language signage in the Egypt scenes in Seasons 1 and 2 (centering on the [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Suez Crisis]] of 1956) is invariably [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naskh_(script) Naskh]]--and in a particularly straight-lined variant that, while it existed in the 1950s, was really only used in newspapers until the 1970s, and even today really isn't all that common as a display typeface except in its bold form (which the signage often isn't). Arabic signage at the time would have generally used curvier Naskh if they used it at all; more typically, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruq%CA%BFah_script Ruq`ah]],[[note]]For an energetic or informal feel, or just if the signwriter was being lazy--it's the closest to the handwriting of the day[[/note]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwani Diwani]],[[note]]To evoke the majesty of royalty, being based on the calligraphy of the Ottoman court[[/note]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuluth Thuluth]][[note]]For old-school elegance and religious connotations--ornamental calligraphy in mosques is often in Thuluth[[/note]] or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kufic Kufic]][[note]]For its eye-catching geometric style and its evocation of early Islam[[/note]] would be used as display scripts in Arabic in the 1950s (and we say "scripts" because in the 50s these signs would almost invariably be hand-lettered--indeed, typesetting for display wouldn't be common in the Arab World until the advent of computer publishing).

* The documentary ''Martin Luther King and the March on Washington'' features a banner in Arial. Arial, the Helvetica-replica, wasn't invented until the 1980s, though it was meant to be a license-free near approximation to avoid fees for using Helvetica.

* Comics from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks that are featured in works may use Comic Sans as text in word balloons although it wasn't invented until 1994. These books typically used hand-lettering.[[note]]To be fair, Comic Sans was made to resemble this hand lettering and was meant for "fun" projects for kids like drawing and comic-making on computers. Its ire is mainly due to being used inappropriately, where it can look very unappealing.[[/note]]