How to spot · TEXT & SIGNS

Text and signs: why the writing gives it away

AI image tools build a picture out of patterns, not meaning. Writing is a pattern that has to mean something, which is why it so often goes wrong. If a picture has any text in it, read it.

Where to look

• Shop fronts and street signs. Look for letters that are nearly right, words that are not words, and signs that change style halfway along.
• Badges, uniforms and name tags. Police and military badges in AI pictures are usually just badge-shaped blobs.
• Number plates. Wrong length, wrong format for the country, or smeared.
• Newspapers, books, screens and packaging. Headlines may be clean while the small print underneath is scribble.
• Clocks, calendars and keyboards. Numbers in the wrong order, months that do not exist, keys with no letters.

Small print matters more than big print

Newer AI tools can now write a short headline or a shop name correctly, especially if the person making the picture asked for those exact words. They are much worse at the text nobody asked for: the small sign in the background, the label on a bottle, the writing on a T-shirt three rows back. Zoom in on the writing that is not the point of the picture.

Does the writing fit the place?

Real places have real, checkable writing. A street sign should be in the right language and style for the country. A shop name can be searched for. A protest placard should make sense for the event. If a picture claims to show a particular street and you can find that street on a map, compare the signs.

Logos and watermarks

Some AI tools add their own small mark in a corner, and some pictures carry invisible labels (called content credentials) that say how they were made. Both can be cropped out or removed, so a missing label proves nothing. A news agency watermark is not proof either, because it can be copied onto a fake.

What this cannot tell you

Perfect writing does not make a picture real. People can add correct text to an AI image afterwards, and the best tools now spell well. And a real photograph can contain odd writing: a foreign alphabet, a broken sign, motion blur. Treat garbled text as a strong hint, then look for the source.