The Typography of Star Trek

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Typeset in the Future: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, you might be expecting to see the font from its opening titles in Star Trek: The Motion Picture too. This font was (perhaps unsurprisingly) called Star Trek….

The Star Trek font also appeared in a non-italic version, to introduce William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to 1960s TV audiences. Sadly, this is where the good news ends. When The Original Series returned for a second season, it added DeForest Kelley (Dr. “Bones” McCoy) as a second “ALSO STARRING”.

The problem here is obvious, isn’t it? Unlike the Es in “SHATNER” and “LEONARD,” the ones in “DEFOREST KELLEY” have straight corners, not curved ones.

Alas, The Original Series’s inconsistent typography did not survive the stylistic leap into the 1970s. To make up for it, The Motion Picture’s title card introduces a new font, with some of the curviest Es known to sci-fi. It also follows an emerging seventies trend: Movie names beginning with STAR must have long trailing lines on the opening S.

On This Day: Sep 23

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 22 posts previously published on September 23rd

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
    • The Typography of Star Trek Typeset in the Future: Star Trek: The Motion Picture If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, you might be expecting to see the font from its opening titles in Star Trek: The Motion Picture too. This font was (perhaps unsurprisingly) called Star Trek…. The Star Trek font also appeared in a non-italic ... Read more ➡
    • On This Day: Sep 23 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from September 23 ➡
  • 2018
    • Report: Disney re-animating parts of Wreck-It-Ralph sequel after Princess and the Frog criticism. I’m impressed that Disney is doing this. Good for them for listening and actually taking action. ➡
    • Linkdump for September 3rd through September 23rd An automatically generated list of links that caught my eye between September 3rd and September 23rd. ➡
  • 2017
    • Our local Fred Meyer has the (ahem) recently discovered Rhino Dragon in stock! 🦏🐲 😆 ➡
  • 2016
    • Book forty-three of 2016: Remake, by Connie Willis 🌟🌟🌟 (267/366) ➡
    • How embarrassing! That’s twice this week I’ve forgotten my daily photo. Here’s my Snapchat filter as penance! (266/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • At the CWU Grad School orientation, ready to be students again! #cwupride ➡
  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Derailing the Peace Train I saw this while flipping through the paper yesterday on lunch, and thought it was fairly ridiculous, and now the story is making it's way across the 'net: the United States is now safely protected from the evil Cat Stevens. ➡
  • 2003
    • More on Gibson's 'The Passion' Dad sent me a couple articles over the last few days looking at Mel Gibson's 'The Passion', lately seeming to be the most controversial religious film that almost no one's seen since Dogma was in pre-release. Anyway, if you're at all interested in the film or the controversy around it, both of these are worth a look. ➡
    • Shaolin Soccer needs to be released, dammit Among the top 10 movies downloaded on the Internet in August were the usual blockbusters: Pirates of the Caribbean, The Hulk, Matrix Reloaded ... and Shaolin Soccer. ➡
    • Matrix/Web Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain but you feel it, that there's something wrong with the web. You don't know what it is but it's there like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. ➡
    • Bush's U.N. address Bits and pieces from yesterday's address to the U.N. by President Bush. ➡
  • 2002
    • Why can’t Bush speak? He's made it clear repeatedly: George W. Bush is always right, George W. Bush can do no wrong. And now he's accidentally made the point again, by showing himself incapable -- psychologically, and therefore physically -- of saying 'Shame on me.' ➡
    • ‘Up-skirt’ photography ‘reprehensible’ but legal The state's voyeurism law protects people who are in a place where they 'would have a reasonable expectation of privacy'.... But the court found the law doesn't apply to filming people in a public place, even if it's underneath their clothes. ➡
    • More TrackBack mumbo-jumbo Phil makes a good case for not including TrackBack metadata in the HTML for the main site page. This works well for me, as I'd previously struggled with it causing problems with the HTML validation for my site. ➡
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📚 thirty-eight of 2020: The Captains’ Honor by David and Daniel Dvorkin ⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng

Somehow the Roman gladiator planet from TOS has become a full member of the Federation, with a Starfleet ship crewed entirely by these neo-Romans. It does not go well.

On This Day: Sep 22

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 18 posts previously published on September 22nd

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • 📚 thirty-eight of 2020: The Captains’ Honor by David and Daniel Dvorkin ⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng Somehow the Roman gladiator planet from TOS has become a full member of the Federation, with a Starfleet ship crewed entirely by these neo-Romans. It does not go well. ➡
    • On This Day: Sep 22 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from September 22 ➡
  • 2019
    • As of today, I’ve completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge of 52 books (one for each week), with more than three months to spare. 18 of those books have been part of my Hugo reading project. Not a bad nine months’ work. Now to see where I end up at year’s end! ➡
    • Book fifty-two of 2019: Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ While the story didn’t entirely grab me, the artwork by #nwc43 Artist GOH Sana Takeda is quite gorgeous. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her work in person next spring. ➡
  • 2014
    • Monday is done. Running out of days when campus will be this empty! ➡
  • 2008
    • Say what, Sarah? Y'know, I think one of the things that really bugs me about Sarah Palin is simply that all too often, when I'm reading transcriptions of statements she's made, I have _no idea_ what she's saying. Well, okay, not _no_ idea -- generally it is possible to figure out what she's trying to say -- but her spoken grammar goes beyond the usual sloppiness one can expect in off-the-cuff spoken English into sheer gobbledygook. ➡
  • 2007
    • Alive Again… After twenty-two days, we're finally up and running in the new apartment -- internet and phone are both _finally_ working as they should. This took far, _far_ too long. ➡
  • 2006
    • Cydonia redux The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has obtained new, high resolution images of the ever-popular Cydonian 'face' on Mars, putting to rest (again) the myth that there's actually a constructed face on the surface of the red planet. ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Security issues driving PC users to the Mac It's certainly not much of a surprise, given the ever-increasing number of attacks against Windows of late, but more and more people are moving to the Mac platform after getting hit by one too many Windows security problems. ➡
    • 1000 millimeters in an inch Okay, I know that the US has, as a whole, been resisting switching over to the metric system (a real shame in my opinion). But still — you'd think that the Department of Homeland Security would be a little more informed than they appear to be… ➡
    • Too hot! Too cold! Augghh! One definite disadvantage to switching up to the 8am-5pm schedule I'm on now. Aaaahhhh, the joys of apartment living! ➡
  • 2003
    • Future plans Now, this is all fairly tentative at the moment, but I've been toying with the idea of getting back into school for some time now, and it just may be time to start finally working towards that. We'll see where things go from here. ➡
    • Bugfixes are good Well, that was a nice surprise. I just updated my Mac to OS X 10.2.8, and on restart, discovered a bug fix. ➡
    • My eyes! My eyes! Hasn't use of the 'blink' tag been outlawed by now? The worst part is, the rest of the design isn't shabby at all, which just makes the gratuitously annoying blinking stand out by comparison. Ugh. ➡
    • JetBlue class action lawsuit Did you fly JetBlue between February 2000 and September 2002? You may be eligible for a class action lawsuit against JetBlue being investigated. ➡

On This Day: Sep 21

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 19 posts previously published on September 21st

  • 2025
  • 2023
  • 2021
    • 📚 33/2021: The Duke and I by Julia Quinn ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Pros and cons of working from home in one sentence: When you’re sick, it doesn’t necessarily mean you fall behind on work. Yay? The biggest change is that while I usually work from home, today I’m working from my bed. With more naps. And an even more lax dress code than usual. ➡
  • 2017
  • 2016
    • I’m becoming one of “those people” — get up and do 30 minutes on either the stationary bike or the elliptical before my morning shower. This morning was the elliptical, and Prairie caught me boogieing to a good tune (a mashup of Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy” and Katie Perry’s “California Girls”). (265/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Started today with a nice walk along the Yakima river. Pretty morning! ➡
  • 2009
  • 2008
    • Star Trek Story Record #8 (BR 513) A treasure I found a long time ago, and recently reacquired from my brother. Star Trek Story Record #8, Power Records BR 513, _still in the shrink wrap_. This set includes the LP and a comic book with two stories: _A Mirror for Futility_ by Alan Dean Foster, and _The Time Stealer_ by Cary Bates and Neal Adams. ➡
  • 2006
  • 2004
    • The new me I don't think these pictures really do them justice, but I got my new glasses today, along with Star Wars on DVD. ➡
  • 2003
    • Finding my sea legs When Rick called me a couple weeks ago to let me know that he'd found a place to rent kayaks and asked if I wanted to go along, I was all for it. Yesterday around noon, he and his roommate Liza picked me up, and we headed off to find the Agua Verde Paddle Club. ➡
  • 2002
    • Goth isn’t dead…it just wishes it were. Goth will never die. Of course for fun we could take it out, bury it, and then dig it up later to see what it looks like. ➡
    • Reviewed! Last week I stumbled across Bloggy Opinions a blog review website. It seemed fairly entertaining, and the reviewers seemed to do a good even job of reviewing the sites they visited, so I went ahead and submitted 'The Long Letter' to them. ➡
    • Yikes I think I just heard gunshots. Eight, very quick, all together, no pauses. Creepy. ➡
  • 2001
    • Amusing quotes anyways, my GAY brother tom was watchin vh1, which is like suppose to be like mtv only for old people or something, and there was this thing called 25 years of punk! i was like, hell ya, i'm a punk! so of course i had to watch it! ➡
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Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful

Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive systems — mental and physical — that humans draw on for short-term survival in acutely stressful situations, such as natural disasters. But natural disasters occur over a short period, even if recovery is long. Pandemics are different — the disaster itself stretches out indefinitely.

On This Day: Sep 20

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 20 posts previously published on September 20th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
    • Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful Surge capacity is a collection of adaptive systems — mental and physical — that humans draw on for short-term survival in acutely stressful situations, such as natural disasters. But natural disasters occur over a short period, even if recovery is long. Pandemics are different ... Read more ➡
    • On This Day: Sep 20 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from September 20 ➡
  • 2018
    • “This last week has really made great strides to remind me that women’s pain doesn’t matter in America.” ➡
  • 2016
    • From this morning: catching up on Facebook while pedaling on the exercise bike. (264/366) ➡
    • Once again, a Snapchat filter as penance for forgetting my photo yesterday. (263/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Just a quiet Saturday evening at home. ➡
  • 2011
    • DADT is done On September 20, 2011, 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' will officially become past tense. ➡
  • 2010
  • 2006
    • Photofront I just found a really nice way to create a very slick gallery style presentation: Photofront. A few clicks create a simple Flash-based photo presentation that can either be hosted on the Photofront site or embedded into your own site as I've done. Nicely done! ➡
  • 2005
    • Cute. Cuddly. Delicious. Babies: Cute. Cuddly. Delicious. ➡
    • Yes! We Have No Bananas! This is fascinating, and -- amusing as it sounds -- actually pretty serious: we could be as little as five years away from a banana apocalypse...and that's not even the worst case scenario. ➡
  • 2003
    • Carver This little vehicle looks perfect for me — small, great for in-city driving, lots of fun to drive around in, and very eye-catching. Unfortunately, it looks like it's only available in Europe. Bleah. I can dream, though, can't I? ➡
  • 2002
    • The Turing Test is in no danger Just some fun wordplay, from this MeFi thread dealing with AI, language, and other such goodies. ➡
    • Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers Melanie Weaver was stunned by some of the term papers she received from a 10th-grade class she recently taught.... 'They would be trying to make a point in a paper, they would put a smiley face in the end.... If they were presenting an argument and they needed to present an opposite view, they would put a frown.' ➡
    • Violence in the media People say, 'After Columbine, do you feel a responsibility about the way you portray violence?' And I'm like, 'No, I felt a responsibility about the way I portrayed violence the first time I picked up a pen.' ➡
    • Breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law! The Onion does not support the use of its headlines without the express written consent of the publisher. You can put a link to The Onion on your site but may not use the headlines or content. More information on how to link to The Onion is available at our Link Page. ➡
    • Fat scrimping Rob's writing another story. ➡

On This Day: Sep 19

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 27 posts previously published on September 19th

  • 2023
  • 2020
    • A Long List of GOP Senators Who Promised Not to Confirm a Supreme Court Nominee During an Election Year Pointing out all the hypocrisy won’t get Democrats very far in what will be one of the most contentious nomination fights in the court’s history. But it should at least clarify who they’re dealing with. ➡
    • On This Day: Sep 19 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from September 19 ➡
  • 2019
    • Honest Academic Job Postings: The Chemistry department invites applicants for an assistant professor whose research requires the outdated and esoteric equipment we have sitting around in our labs. ➡
    • Book fifty-one of 2019: The Trouble With Tribbles, by David Gerrold. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ A fun, breezy memoir about the creation of one of Star Trek’s most beloved episodes, this is an enjoyable peek into the creative process for television in the 1960s, and Star Trek in particular. ➡
  • 2018
    • How a prank to improve McDonald’s ad diversity turned into a marketing campaign: What an unexpectedly nice response from McDonalds to this prank. Nicely done all around! ➡
    • Remember When You Could Call the Time? I do: 844 was the local number in Anchorage, Alaska. This article is from 2016, but gives the U.S. Naval Observatory’s time service number as 202-762-1401, so I called it — and it’s still up and running! ➡
  • 2017
    • One of these days we need to have a game night… #munchkin #munchkinshakespeare ➡
  • 2015
    • Bug Flickers. Flickers. Right. #badfont #kerningfail ➡
  • 2008
  • 2006
    • International Vote Like an American Pirate Day If I didn't have to go to work this afternoon, I'd _so_ be spending the day down at the Seattle Center, wandering around, taking pictures, and hoping for the three events to collide in some spectacularly silly fashion. ➡
  • 2005
    • Best Viewed Large I have to admit to a certain curiosity about the tendency for so many people to add 'best viewed large' to the descriptions of a photo they've uploaded to Flickr. Two things are constantly popping into my head when I see 'best viewed large' added to a photo... ➡
    • Men In Kilts It's the freedom, they say. The freedom to move, to feel the breeze, to stay cool on a hot summer day. And all this freedom comes simply from banishing pants to the back of the closet, say the men who wear the Utilikilt, a rugged modern take on the Celtic kilt. ➡
  • 2004
    • Coalition of the Unwilling Costa Rica has requested that its name be stricken from the White House's 'Coalition of the Willing', saying their support was for the War on Terrorism, not the invasion of Iraq. ➡
    • Vote for Kerry, Lose Your Job And I thought I got fired for a bad reason — my story doesn't even begin to compare to this woman who lost her job because she is a John Kerry supporter. ➡
    • My Life (at age 11) My Life, by Mike Hanscom, age 11 ➡
    • Vacation pictures I've uploaded a selection of photos from my trip to Anchorage to two places: a few shots of friends and family to my flickr album, and more shots of Anchorage and the surrounding area to the family photo gallery. ➡
  • 2003
    • Out at the Vogue Just got back from the Vogue. I don't often go on Friday nights, as I'm generally a bit tired at the end of the work week, and I know more of the music on Saturdays, but getting out of the house just seemed to be the thing to do tonight. ➡
    • Surprise deportations It appears that immigrants in the process of becoming citizens are being sent letters asking them to report to the INS for paperwork reasons. When they go down to the office, expecting to fill out forms, process some paperwork, or pick up their green card, they are instead suddenly handcuffed, detained, and deported. ➡
    • French 'Engrish' One of the ladies here at work just came back from a week in Paris, and she brought back an inflatable Eiffel Tower for us. The greatest part, of course, is the instruction sheet — apparently, 'Engrish' is multilingual… ➡
    • Gay couple kept out of US A married gay couple on their way from Canada to a human rights conference in Georgia were not allowed to enter the United States today because the two men insisted on filling out a single Customs clearance form declaring themselves a family. ➡
    • Weblog Ethics Rebecca Blood has an excerpt from her book The Weblog Handbook posted dealing with weblog ethics that's well worth looking at. I do my best to abide by these rules — to me, most of them are pure common sense — but it's not a bad idea to occasionally refresh the concept in your mind. ➡
    • Avast, ye dogs! Aye, and here it be Talk Like a Pirate Day, me hearties! ➡
    • Graham, not Isabel There's a picture making the e-mail rounds right now that purports to be a shot of Hurricane Isabel over the ocean before it hit land. Apparently it's been mislabeled — it's actually Tropical Storm Graham — but it's still one hell of a gorgeous picture. ➡
  • 2002
    • Faster! Faster! Fas…aw, crap. I was playing with what I'd hoped would be a new feature for the site last night. Things were looking really promising for a while, too -- but it looks like it's not going to happen, or at the very least, not anytime soon. Bleah. ➡
    • No more popups (almost) Since I'm one of the many people out there who believe, to the very depths of my soul, that popups are evil, I've removed the popup window for posting comments. Now, clicking on the 'comment' link will take you to the page for the post itself, and scroll down to the comment form. Simple, but much easier. ➡
  • 2001
    • Slow times Of course, even when I claim that life is boring and I have nothing to do or say about it, I can still fill up eight-plus pages in this little notebook about my lack of anything to write about. Like that will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me. ➡
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies At 87 :

Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

I’m generally an optimistic sort. But my god, is 2020 making it hard to hold on to that when it keeps proving the pessimists right.

Right now, we need Democrats to act like Republicans — by which I mean they need to do absolutely everything in their power, use every trick in the book, to invoke the Merrick Garland precedent and honor Ginsburg’s dying wish