Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ai-lab!churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu!cbwood From: cbwood@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Clifton B. Wood) Newsgroups: comp.fonts Subject: Re: Star Trek, the font generation Keywords: Science Fiction Fonts Message-ID: <15125@life.ai.mit.edu> Date: 20 Apr 91 19:19:41 GMT References: <1991Apr19.174610.19644@newsserver.sfu.ca> <15102@life.ai.mit.edu> <+=pg0!=@rpi.edu> Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Distribution: usa Organization: The Internet Lines: 107 You bring up some interesting points that I have also been thinking about as we well, James. In article <+=pg0!=@rpi.edu> kibo@jec311.its.rpi.edu (James 'Kibo' Parry) writes: >Microgramma Bold Extended is the ship-name font; it's rather different >from plain Microgramma (33% wider and twice as dark, approximately. I >digitized it once for someone.) Be sure to get the right font in the >family, if you're a real Trekkist :-) Yeah, I have a Letraset catalogue and I did not the difference between Microgramma and Microgramma Bold Extended. I woudn't mind having both, actually. I'll state my reasons for all of this later in this article. >Eurostile is the same as Microgramma (the designer, Novarese, redrew it-- >the difference is that Eurostile has lowercase.) Eurostile is also >available in Bold Extended. > Really? I did look at Microgramma plain in my Letraset catalogue and noticed a moderate difference in the aspect ration of plain Microgramma and a printout I had of Eurostile. Eurostile is nice and everything, but I prefer my letters to be a bit wider than they are taller...don't ask me why.... >For a lot of the interior ship stuff in The Next Generation they've been >using Helvetica Condensed. I think it's a better choice than the >Microgramma family to be used in the context of a future setting, because >Microgramma already looks rather dated (50s/60s). Of course, >Microgramma was contemporary-looking when the original Trek was done. Hmmm, OK, I think I can agree with you on this one, slightly. I will say that after experimenting with the fonts for a while, I did take a lok at Helvetica Condensed and it did look like the Station Names on TNG. Fine. I have that one now. But like I said, my preference is still with slightly wider letters than tall ones. Microgramma Bold Extended is still one of my favorite sets. >Stop and Yagi Double were also used extensively for Battlestar >Galactica. Since you say you're interested in other "science fiction" >fonts, and I stare at the fonts when I watch science fiction, here are >some others worth mentioning: I fell in love with stop when I was a Battlestar Galactica junkie in the 70's. Mainly because it was so strange looking and yes, it still is strange looking, but you are right, it HAS been over used. Still interested in finding that one just to play around with it. >Futura Black (a stencil-like font derived from condensed Futura.) It >was used in the first season Space:1999 titles, the Buckaroo Banzai >titles, and many other things. I don't know why people consider it [rest of paragraph deleted...] Hmmm. I was playing around with what little Futura I had working and I didn't notice that. No, I agree with you on the fact that futura doesn't look THAT futuristic looking. More like exactly what it is. Stylized Serif. >Baby Teeth and Sinaloa are also often used for futuristic-looking >letters; they're both extremely simplified, solid black capitals (Baby >Teeth has a single white notch in most characters; Sinaloa has racing >stripes.) They, like the others I mention, can be found in a >Letraset catalog. Baby Teeth and Sinaloa never struck me as futuristic looking. Baby Teeth looked just a bit too 40's or 30's is to me. Looked like something that you would see on a Broadway show. Sinaloa just looks to me like letters in motion rather than a font that I would see something like street signs lettered in. >One of my pet projects is to design some lettering that looks like how >*I* think alphabets will be simplified in the future (which, of course, [rest of paragraph deleted.] Same here. I am trying to think of a good way to design an "alien script" using bits and pieces of interesting fonts and lettersets as bases for more ideas. For a project I am working on a friend with. Not that these fonts are just as references for stuff that HAS been done so that we know what NOT to do or imitate. >If you're designing the look of a world for a science fiction show or >film, it makes sense to me that you'd want to hire someone to draw some >original lettering--not only would you have more control over the look >of the world, but you'd also avoid having something that looked 20s, >30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s... (after all, you wouldn't put a >chair designed in 1985 in a room that needs 24th-century furniture, >would you?) Yeah, I think you hit it right on the nose there, but I would like to try my hand at it. Or at least have my friend work on it since he is a MUCH better artist than I am (hell, I can barely do stick figures right, although I am a fairly decent at CAD programs...) Speaking of futuristic lettering for lets say, America in 10 years. I figure letters are going to get more and more simplistic for general use. Kind of like helvetica (which I think has a LONG lifespan left in it yet) but just a bit more square in terms of aspect ratio. (my $.02) > >James "Kibo" Parry kibo@rpi.edu >132 Beacon St. #213, Boston, MA 02116 >(617) 262-3922 Yeah, thanks for the info. Cliff cbwood@gnu.ai.mit.edu aralyn@eddie.ee.vt.edu Still ".sig" less!