Undertale Fonts: Sans, Papyrus and Wingdings
Undertale named three of its characters after fonts and made them speak in those fonts. Here is how Comic Sans, Papyrus and Wingdings became Sans, Papyrus and Gaster.
Few games have turned fonts into characters the way Undertale did. Two of its most loved characters, the skeleton brothers Sans and Papyrus, are named after typefaces, speak in those typefaces, and even behave the way their fonts are perceived. A third, the mysterious W. D. Gaster, completes the joke with the least readable font of all: Wingdings.
Sans and Comic Sans
Sans takes his name from Comic Sans, and most of his in-game dialogue is displayed in Comic Sans, usually in lower case. The choice fits his personality: relaxed, jokey and easy to underestimate. When he explains serious game mechanics or threatens the player, the text switches back to the game’s default font, which makes those moments hit harder.
Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare at Microsoft and released in the mid 1990s. It became one of the most recognised and most mocked fonts in the world, which is exactly the energy Sans brings to the Underground.
Papyrus and the Papyrus font
Papyrus, Sans’s enthusiastic younger brother, is named after the Papyrus typeface and speaks in it, in capital letters. The font’s slightly rough, antique look suits a character who takes his puzzles and his dream of joining the Royal Guard extremely seriously.
Like Comic Sans, Papyrus is a font designers love to complain about, and pairing the two brothers turns two of the internet’s favourite typography jokes into a double act.
Gaster and Wingdings
The third font character is W. D. Gaster, the former Royal Scientist. His initials are widely read as Wing Ding, and his dialogue is written in Wingdings with capital letters: 🕈︎☟︎🏳︎ ✌︎☼︎☜︎ ✡︎🏳︎🕆︎ is how “WHO ARE YOU” would look in his voice.
Where Sans and Papyrus use fonts that everyone can read, Gaster’s font replaces every letter with a symbol. That turns his lines into puzzles, and it is the reason tools like our Gaster translator exist. You can read more about the character in W. D. Gaster explained.
A surprising connection: Vincent Connare
There is a neat link between two of these fonts. Vincent Connare, who designed Comic Sans, was also part of the Microsoft team that created Webdings in 1997, the picture font that became Wingdings’ sister. So the designer behind Sans’s voice also helped build the family of dingbat fonts that Gaster’s voice belongs to. Webdings has its own story, told in why Microsoft made Webdings.
The three fonts side by side
| Character | Font | How the text looks | What it says about them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sans | Comic Sans | Lower case, casual | Laid back, jokes first |
| Papyrus | Papyrus | All capitals, antique | Loud, earnest, dramatic |
| W. D. Gaster | Wingdings | All capitals, symbols only | Lost, unreadable, mysterious |
Why the font jokes work
Undertale is full of games about the game itself, and the fonts are part of that. Players already know Comic Sans and Papyrus from school posters and restaurant menus, so meeting them as living characters is instantly funny. Wingdings works the other way round: most people have seen it only by accident, when a document opened with the wrong font and filled with hands and skulls. Giving that feeling to a character who exists “between” the game’s reality is a clever piece of worldbuilding.
Write in Gaster’s font
If you want to write a line in Gaster’s style, type it below. The translator converts it to capital Wingdings automatically.
Your text in all four fonts
For every letter at a glance, see the Wingdings chart. For the hidden text that made Gaster famous, read about Entry Number 17.
Frequently asked questions
What font does Sans use in Undertale?
Most of Sans's dialogue is displayed in Comic Sans, the font his name comes from. Serious moments switch to the game's default font.
What font does Papyrus use?
Papyrus speaks in the Papyrus typeface, in capital letters.
What font does Gaster use?
Gaster's dialogue is written in Wingdings with capital letters, so it needs a decoder to read.