# Decoy Font

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/decoy-font/

11 people recommended Decoy Font in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 12 months, in 1 thread. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

11 of the 11 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Decoy Font”.

**Verdict:** A font that shows AI and people different text; people mostly find it fun. Critics say modern AI models often still read the hidden text.

Summary written by Claude from 19 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Fun and cool as a project (5 comments in the sample): "Is it useful? No. Does it stop AI from reading it? Also no. But is it cool? Yes, it is very cool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937018)) "As a project they are kind of fun." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48939736)) "Omg. I needed this in my life." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48939319))
- Works on some AI models (2 comments in the sample): "The demonstration shows that it does stop AI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937312)) "Yes, the decoy font worked" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946141))

## What people warn about

- Modern AI still reads text (4 comments in the sample): "doesn't seem like a reliable way to hide text from state of the art AI models" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48958819)) "I just gave the day dream / pay bills image to ChatGPT and Gemini pro and they both could only tell me the pay bills…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938578)) "it may work for certain models with certain prompts, but I just asked gemini if it could see both" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938928))
- Hard to read or type (3 comments in the sample): "it also hides the message from myself, making it incredibly hard to type" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48936856)) "Good job on creating a firewall for people who have poor vision." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946199)) "Does it give me nausea? Yes yes yes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48938497))

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Decoy Font", https://hackerapproved.com/p/decoy-font/ (11 recommend, 5 mixed, 7 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.