Death Note font

What the logo-history sites say

Logos-World, a site that collects logo histories, describes the inscription as bold, uppercase antique letters with a slightly worn, shabby look, and says the font was specially designed for the project. It explains that the letters do not sit in a straight line: D, E, H, N, O and the last E stand upright, while the A and the two T's lie flat between them and act like separators. It also notes that the N is shifted away from the H to show where the two words split.

The mirrored E and later versions

1000logos describes the first logo, from 2003, as bold serif capitals with the letter E mirrored and the A and both T's set horizontally, on a black banner with white Japanese characters. It lists a redesign used from 2006 that redraws the English name as a handwritten-style serif, with a dot in the D, above smaller, more geometric Japanese lettering. Neither 1000logos nor Logos-World names a typeface or a designer, and we found no publisher or studio source that does.

How to get the look

Use heavy serif capitals and give them a rough, worn texture, like old ink on paper. Mirror the first E, then rotate the A and both T's by 90 degrees so they lie on their side, and stretch the T's into long bars. Cinzel or Libre Baskerville in bold are good free bases. Black on white or white on black keeps the stark feel.

Common questions