Towards a New pIqaD

This page is a place where I’m gathering ideas and guiding principles for Teh Ultimate Klingon pIqaD typeface. This will be the dense, spiky writing you remember from The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, but imbued with actual Klingon meaning, with crisp details and sharp points (rather than the slightly amorphous shapes of the veS QonoS interpretation).

In short, this typeface will change future history as we know it!—Retroactively.

In Star Trek

Klingon signage, as seen in the various incarnations of Star Trek, used to be devoid of linguistic content. From the very beginning, however, there existed distinct Klingon visual style, and written text seen in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine may have been nonsense, but it was easily recognizable as clearly Klingon, and consisted of a small distinct set of characters arranged to form “words”. None of these characters had sound or meaning assigned to them.

TOS “Elaan of Troyius” (1968): This very first glimpse of written Klingon actually predates the spoken language by quite a number of years, and comes in the shape of hull markings on a Klingon warship. Unfortunately the characters are not legible on screen, but behind-the-scene photos of the model used for filming the episodes, as well as design notes by Matt Jefferies show us what they look like (Star Trek Sketchbook: The Original Series, 1997; The Evolution of the Klingon Emblem, 2023; Smithsonian: Model, D7 Klingon Battle Cruiser, “Star Trek”; Forgotten Trek: Designing the Klingon Battle Cruiser, 2005):

The characters can be read as “D74” using Klin Mura character set (below). Whether or this reading is the original intent—the ship is a “D7-class battle cruiser”—or a retcon is harder to tell, as the D7 designation was not used in the original series (nor given the Matt Jefferies’ original notes as published in Star Trek Sketchbook).

Looking at the characters one by one, and comparing them to the now commonly used pIqaD we find that the first character doesn’t resemble anything at all, while the second character might be said to resemble an m and the third definitely look like the number 4. Also, the look of the characters line up more with the Mandel character sets than pIqaD.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979): The Klingon battle cruiser from the original series returns, but, since finer details where discernible on the big screen, a new model with more intricate surface detailing was created. We also see Klingon characters used on various displays in the interior shots of the Klingon bridge.

Connection to the Language

The pIqaD characters we use for writing Klingon were first revealed in 1989, in the newsletter veS QonoS (“War Journal”) of the now defunct Klingon fan group Mortas-Te-Kaase. The illustration in veS QonoS contains two sets of Mandel characters, as well as two slightly different versions of pIqaD (labeled Rumaiy Klin Bur-Chak and Klin Zhan-Bur) and a handwritten signature (at the top of the page) also in pIqaD.—For rest of this article I’ll only be discussing the pIqaD character sets (ignoring the Mandel sets), and, unless specifically noted, it is the Klin Zhan-Bur characters I’m talking about (since, over time, these alone has come to be regarded as the official writing system of the Klingons).

In the nineties, The Klingon Language Institute (KLI) made a floppy disk with a couple of different Klingon fonts available for purchase. One of these fonts was the KLI pIqaDmey, created in 1992 by Lawrence M. Schoen (the founder and, at the time, director of KLI). KLI pIqaDmey contained the Klingon letters and numbers (though no punctuation marks, as these only appeared later). The glyphs in this font are faithful reproductions of those found in veS QonoS, and have become the de-facto standard for the appearance of pIqaD.

Punctuation Enters the Game

In 1994, SkyBox published the Star Trek collectible cards SP1, SP2 and SP3. Each of the cards contains a paragraph of random text written in the Star Trek Pi font, a snippet of actual Klingon (written in Latin letters) and an English translation of that text. One thing is new, however, in that the nonsense text also contain filled black triangles (either pointing up or down) which looks as if they are acting like some kind of punctuation marks.

In 1995 and 1996, these cards were followed up with additional cards which also makes use of the triangles (S7–S9 and S13–S15 in 1995, and S19–S21 in 1996). There were additional Klingon cards published after this as well, but nowhere did the black triangles reappear.

On most of the cards (though not all) the punctuation triangles are separated from surrounding words with extra space (written as if they were words in their own right). I find this neat-looking, since the triangles themselves are quite heavy on the page.

Entering Canon

In 2012 Haynes published their Klingon Bird-of-Prey: Owner’s Workshop Manual, which, among other things contained text written in pIqaD. And since this is an officially sanctioned, licensed product it meant that the Klingon writing took another step towards full canonicity. And this time, the text was genuine and actual Klingon was being written! The fonts used is this book (pIqaD HaSta and pIqaD vaHbo’) were designed by Mike Neff (qa’vaj) and released to the wider world in 2009.

Unfortunately (in my opinion), though the pIqaD HaSta look a lot more like what we see on-screen than KLI pIqaDmey does, some of the glyphs are just off, doing their own thing for no particularly good reason, deviating quite a bit from the pIqaD we got from veS QonoS.

Worst in appearance are the vowels e, I, o, and the consonants j, Q, and tlh (the darkest blue in the table above)—they hardly even resemble corresponding glyphs in KLI pIqadmey. A little less bad are b, D, H, m, S, t, u and w (light blue above), which, while not exactly aesthetically pleasing, are at least identifiable.

Finally, the a, gh, l, n, ng, r, v, and y (yellow above) borrow their glyphs from the Star Trek Pi font (though slightly rounded, loosing the crispness of detail seen on the SkyBox cards). ch is a clockwise 90° rotated version of ng. While p, q, and ’ are nicely designed originals.

What Should Good pIqaD Look Like?

Glyph-by-Glyph Thoughts

Below I use “original pIqaD” to refer to the writing system described in veS QonoS (which is implemented by the fonts KLI pIqaDmey, KA-pIqaD, pIqaD by qurgh and possibly others).

j a – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph.

b –

ch – Star Trek Pi glyph l rotated 90° clockwise, and stretched somewhat in the length direction.

D – Star Trek Pi glyph m rotated 180°. A break should be added in the bottom line, and maybe the top line should be elongated and slightly bent to the right.

e – In original pIqaD the glyphs for e and w are quite similar, with the most prominent difference being that the lines of e do taper but remains the same thickness all the way to their tips, while w end in sharp edges.

i gh – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph.

H – This glyph is significantly smaller and narrower than all the other glyphs in the original pIqaD, which makes it look sorta out of place. Is this perceived as a distinguishing factor among pIqaD users? If this is the case, then I think the smallness should be preserved, otherwise I’d rather rescale the glyph be more in line with the size of the other characters.

I –

j –

e l – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph.

m –

f n – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph.

l ng – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph. The glyph has a stronger downwards line than in the KLI pIqaDmey.

o –

p –

q –

Q – Some fonts (like pIqaD HaSta, pIqaD Mandel and Nokia Pure) use k from Star Trek Pi as the symbol for Q, but I think this less than ideal. The only real reason for using both k and e that I can see, would be that, since both glyphs have been established as on-screen canon, they both need to be included in the typeface for it not to contradict on-screen canon. And though I actually find this a quite compelling argument, I simply think that readability is more important. Also the Q found in veS QonoS pIqaD looks very different ( vs k).

g r – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph.

S – Use a modified version of one of the glyphs from gunner controls in Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

t – Vertically flipped version of 6.

tlh –

u –

h v – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph. It is worth noting that the Star Trek Pi glyph looks quite different from the original pIqaD (h vs ).

n w – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph. In original pIqaD the glyphs for e and w are quite similar, with the most prominent difference being that the lines of e do taper but remains the same thickness all the way to their tips, while w end in sharp edges.

m y – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph.

’ – Use the glyph that occurs in signage in the Star Trek Enterprise episode “Sleeping Dogs”.

0 – I think this occur on a secondary display on the Klingon bridge in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though unfortunately there’s a lot blur, so that probably won’t help much in defining the shape of the glyph.

1 –

2 –

3 –

4 – Use glyph from original series D7 batteship by Matt Jefferies? Unfortunately the Mandel script have different proportions, line widths and angles. So this still requires a manual redrawing of the glyph.

5 –

6 – Vertically flipped version of t.

7 –

8 –

9 –

 ,;: – This downward pointing triangle should be moved slightly down (for optical balance).

 .!? – This upward pointing triangle should be moved slightly up (for optical balance).

c ¶ – Unmodified Star Trek Pi glyph.

Font Comparison Chart

The following pIqaD comparison chart, is intended to illuminate different people has interpreted the different glyphs, and what the perceived common denominators are. For example, I think that short break in the lower part of line of the letter D is an important distinguishing feature, and by looking at the font comparison table we can see that most (though not all) font creators seem to agree with this as they have retained that feature, giving my reasoning some extra strength.

Included in the table below are all Klingon pIqaD fonts I’ve been able to find. Fonts are taken from, among others, the Klingon.Wiki page “Klingon Computer Fonts” and the Finnish Klingonia site’s “Comparison of pIqaD fonts” (in Finnish). In the cases where I have been able to find a web page for the original font, the font name links to that site, in the remaining cases I instead link to a place where the font is used. Hover over a line in the table to get the name of the creator.

Font Info

Nokia Pure Headline Klingon (2013) is a classical sans serif typeface created by the font foundry Dalton Maag (commissioned by Nokia). It adds Klingon characters to the Nokia Pure Headline font. It was published as an April Fool’s joke in 2013, but is still one of the most complete fonts out there with regular, bold and light variants (Nokia: “Pure Klingon”, 2013).

Episodes

This is a list of Klingon-centric episodes (episodes with only series regulars Worf or B’Elanna are not included). The list is meant to serve as a continuation point for further research (and screen captures) relating to how Klingon writing has been portrayed on-screen in Star Trek. It has been compiled from the list of episodes mentioned on Klingon.Wiki’s “List of Klingon Star Trek Episodes” as well as the Klingon episodes mentioned in the Memory Alpha article “Depicting Klingons”. The list (as well as this whole article) should not be regarded as complete, and additional movies and episodes will most likely be added to it in the future.

The first column indicates whether or not I’ve gone through the episode and captured relevant image (“✓” for a researched, and “✗” for one where research has yet to be done). Lack of screenshots for an episode I have watched does not necessarily mean that Klingon writing does not occur, only that nothing new and/or interesting occurred (i.e. if only Star Trek Pi glyphs occurred). In the cases where there are screenshots for an episode I haven’t gone through, these screenshots are often images I’ve randomly stumbled upon in other sources. The list is sorted in airdate order.

Non-Star Trek Episodes

Credits

Done	Airdate YYYY-MM-DD	Series/ Number	Episode Name	Notes
✗	1967-03-23	TOS	1x27	Errand of Mercy	Kor
✗	1967-12-01	TOS	2x03	Friday’s Child
✗	1967-12-29	TOS	2x13	The Trouble with Tribbles	Koloth, Korax
✗	1968-02-02	TOS	2x16	A Private Little War
✗	1968-09-27	TOS	3x04	The Enterprise Incident	Romulans using Klingon bird-of-preys
✗	1968-11-01	TOS	3x11	Day of the Dove	Kang, Mara
✗	1968-12-20	TOS	3x02	Elaan of Troyius	Klingon Empire logo warship (sketch, model)
✗	1969-03-07	TOS	3x22	The Savage Curtain	Kahless
✗	1973-10-06	TAS	1x05	More Tribbles, More Troubles	Koloth, Korax
✗	1973-11-24	TAS	1x12	The Time Trap	Kuri, Kor, Kali, Kaz
✓	1979-12-07	ST01	–	The Motion Picture	Various Klingon screens (at beginning of movie)
✗	1984-06-01	ST03	–	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock	Maltz, Torg, Kruge, Valkris, IKC Amar, d’k tahg, kellicam, Qapla’
✗	1986-11-26	ST04	–	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	Klingon Ambassador
✗	1987-11-23	TNG	1x10	Hide And Q	Holographic Klingon female
✗	1988-03-21	TNG	1x20	Heart of Glory	Bridge viewscreen (par Hol)
✗	1988-05-09	TNG	1x25	Conspiracy	Display panel (par Hol)
✗	1989-04-24	TNG	2x14	The Icarus Factor	Worf’s 2nd Rite of Ascension
✗	1989-02-06	TNG	2x08	A Matter of Honor
✗	1989-06-09	ST05	–	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier	Klaa, Korrd, Vixis, Qui’Tu (the center of all creation)
✗	1989-06-26	TNG	2x20	The Emissary
✗	1989-07-17	TNG	2x22	Shades of Gray
✗	1989-10-23	TNG	3x05	The Bonding	Adoption ritual
✗	1990-02-05	TNG	3x13	Deja Q	Any Klingons at all?
✗	1990-02-19	TNG	3x15	Yesterday’s Enterprise	War with the Klingons
✗	1990-03-19	TNG	3x17	Sins of the Father
✗	1990-11-05	TNG	4x07	Reunion
✗	1991-06-17	TNG	4x26	Redemption	Viewscreen (par Hol)
✗	1991-09-23	TNG	5x01	Redemption II
✗	1991-11-11	TNG	5x08	Unification II	Klingon opera, Aktuh and Maylota
✗	1991-12-06	ST06	–	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	Gorkon, Azetbur, Chang, Worf, Kerla, Klingon Ambassador, Praxis, Kronos, map on table
✗	1992-01-06	TNG	5x10	New Ground
✗	1992-03-02	TNG	5x16	Ethics
✗	1992-04-20	TNG	5x20	Cost of Living
✗	1992-05-04	TNG	5x22	Imaginary Friend
✗	1992-11-02	TNG	6x07	Rascals
✗	1992-11-09	TNG	6x08	A Fistful of Datas
✗	1993-02-01	TNG	6x13	Aquiel	Morag, Torak, “lo’Be Vos”, “petaQ”
✗	1993-02-22	TNG	6x16	Birthright, Part I
✗	1993-03-01	TNG	6x17	Birthright, Part II
✗	1993-05-10	TNG	6x22	Suspicions	Kurak (scientist)
✗	1993-05-17	TNG	6x23	Rightful Heir
✗	1994-11-18	ST07	–	Star Trek Generations	Lursa, B’Etor
✗	1993-01-09	DS9	1x03	Past Prologue
✗	1993-10-17	DS9	2x04	Invasive Procedures
✗	1994-02-07	TNG	7x15	Lower Decks
✗	1994-03-21	TNG	7x19	Genesis	Worf as proto-Klingon
✗	1994-03-27	DS9	2x19	Blood Oath	Control panel, control panel, viewscreen ⇒ maj ram
✗	1994-04-25	TNG	7x21	Firstborn	Banner (par Hol)
✗	1994-10-10	DS9	3x03	The House of Quark	Wall decoration (par Hol)
✗	1995-05-01	DS9	3x21	The Die is Cast
✗	1995-10-02	DS9	4x01	The Way of the Warrior, Part 1
✗	1995-10-02	DS9	4x02	The Way of the Warrior, Part 2	(???)
✗	1995-10-16	DS9	4x04	Hippocratic Oath
✗	1995-10-23	DS9	4x05	Indiscretion
✗	1995-11-20	DS9	4x09	The Sword of Kahless	Bat’leth inscription
✗	1996-01-01	DS9	4x11	Homefront
✗	1996-01-08	DS9	4x12	Paradise Lost
✗	1996-02-05	DS9	4x14	Return to Grace
✗	1996-02-12	DS9	4x15	Sons of Mogh
✗	1996-04-08	DS9	4x18	Rules of Engagement
✗	1996-04-22	DS9	4x20	Shattered Mirror
✗	1996-05-06	DS9	4x22	For the Cause	(?)
✗	1996-06-17	DS9	4x26	Broken Link	Wall viewscreen (par Hol)
✗	1996-09-30	DS9	5x01	Apocalype Rising
✗	1996-09-30	DS9	5x01	Apocalypse Rising
✗	1996-10-14	DS9	5x03	Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places
✗	1996-10-21	DS9	5x04	Nor the Battle to the Strong
✗	1996-11-04	DS9	5x06	Trials and Tribble-ations
✗	1997-02-10	DS9	5x14	In Purgatory’s Shadow, Part 1
✗	1997-02-17	DS9	5x15	By Inferno’s Light, Part 2
✗	1997-04-28	DS9	5x21	Soldiers of the Empire
✗	1997-05-05	DS9	5x22	Children of Time
✗	1997-05-12	DS9	5x23	Blaze of Glory
✗	1997-06-16	DS9	5x26	Call to Arms
✗	1997-09-29	DS9	6x01	A Time to Stand
✗	1997-10-13	DS9	6x03	Sons and Daughters
✗	1997-10-27	DS9	6x05	Favor the Bold, Part 1
✗	1997-11-03	DS9	6x06	Sacrifice of Angels, Part 2
✗	1997-11-10	DS9	6x07	You Are Cordially Invited…	Banner, sketch of same banner (par Hol)
✗	1998-02-11	DS9	6x13	Far Beyond the Stars
✗	1998-03-04	VOY	4x19	The Killing Game, Part II
✗	1998-06-17	DS9	6x26	Tears of the Prophets
✗	1998-09-30	DS9	7x01	Image in the Sand
✗	1998-10-07	DS9	7x02	Shadows and Symbols
✗	1998-11-04	DS9	7x06	Treachery, Faith, and the Great River
✗	1998-11-11	DS9	7x07	Once More Unto the Breach
✗	1998-11-11	VOY	5x05	Once Upon a Time
✗	1998-12-11	ST09	–	Star Trek: Insurrection
✗	1999-02-03	DS9	7x12	The Emperor’s New Cloak	Bridge panel (par Hol)
✗	1999-04-07	DS9	7x17	Penumbra
✗	1999-04-21	DS9	7x19	Strange Bedfellows
✗	1999-04-28	DS9	7x20	The Changing Face of Evil
✗	1999-05-05	DS9	7x21	When It Rains...
✗	1999-05-05	DS9	7x21	When It Rains…
✗	1999-05-12	DS9	7x22	Tacking Into the Wind	Bridge display (par Hol)
✗	1999-05-26	DS9	7x24	The Dogs of War
✗	1999-06-02	DS9	7x25	What You Leave Behind, Part 1
✗	1999-06-02	DS9	7x26	What You Leave Behind, Part 2	(???)
✗	1999-10-06	VOY	6x03	Barge of the Dead
✗	1999-10-06	VOY	6x03	Barge of the Dead	Klingon document (pIqaD)
✗	2001-02-07	VOY	7x14	Prophecy
✗	2001-09-26	ENT	1x01	Broken Bow, Part 1	Wall display (par Hol + mirrored glyphs)
✗	2001-09-26	ENT	1x02	Broken Bow, Part 2	(???)
✗	2002-01-30	ENT	1x14	Sleeping Dogs	Sign in corridor (par Hol + qaghwI’)
✗	2002-10-30	ENT	2x06	Marauders
✗	2002-12-13	ST10	–	Star Trek Nemesis
✗	2003-04-09	ENT	2x19	Judgment	Banner in courtroom (par Hol?)
✗	2003-05-14	ENT	2x25	Bounty
✗	2003-05-21	ENT	2x26	The Expanse
✗	2004-11-12	ENT	4x06	The Augments
✗	2005-01-21	ENT	4x11	Observer Effect
✗	2005-02-18	ENT	4x15	Affliction
✗	2005-02-25	ENT	4x16	Divergence
✗	2009-05-08	ST11	–	Star Trek
✗	2013-05-16	ST12	–	Star Trek Into Darkness
✗	2016-07-22	ST13	–	Star Trek Beyond
✗	2017-09-24	DIS	1x01	The Vulcan Hello
✗	2017-09-24	DIS	1x02	Battle at the Binary Stars
✗	2017-10-01	DIS	1x03	Context Is for Kings
✗	2017-10-08	DIS	1x04	The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry
✗	2017-10-15	DIS	1x05	Choose Your Pain
✗	2017-10-22	DIS	1x06	Lethe
✗	2017-10-29	DIS	1x07	Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
✗	2017-11-05	DIS	1x08	Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
✗	2017-11-12	DIS	1x09	Into the Forest I Go
✗	2018-01-07	DIS	1x10	Despite Yourself
✗	2018-01-14	DIS	1x11	The Wolf Inside
✗	2018-01-21	DIS	1x12	Vaulting Ambition
✗	2018-01-28	DIS	1x13	What’s Past Is Prologue
✗	2018-02-04	DIS	1x14	The War Without, the War Within
✗	2018-02-11	DIS	1x15	Will You Take My Hand?	Orion snack bar sign and T’Sang game (pIqaD)
✗	2019-01-31	DIS	2x03	Point of Light	L’Rell’s abdication (pIqaD, see also klingon.wiki)
✗	2021-08-26	LOW	2x03	We’ll Always Have Tom Paris	Padds and another padd in pIqaD (
✗	2022-01-06	PRO	1x05	Kobayashi	Label “ration” on box (English in pIqaD)

Done	Date YYYY-MM-DD	Name	Note
✗	2002-05-07	Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 6x19 “Seeing Red”	Poetry written in pIqaD (see also Klingon.Wiki)
✗	2017-08-24	Teaser for movie Conlanging	Marc Okrand credit (in pIqaD, in English)

The pangram, qajunpaQHeylIjmo', batlh DuSuvqang charghwI' 'It Because of your apparent audacity, the depressed conqueror is willing to fight you with honor, which is used above to illustrate fonts, was created by Agnieszka Solska (also known as 'ISqu') and was the winning contribution to The Great Pangram Contest in HolQeD 10:4 in 2001.

	a	b	ch	D	e	gh	H	I	j	l	m	n	ng	o	p	q	Q	r	S	t	tlh	u	v	w	y	’	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	,;:	.!?	¶
StarTrekPi	j					i				k e		f	l					g					h	n	m														c
KApIqaD																																							
qurgh																																							
Bing																																						
HaSta																																							
Mandel																																							
vaHbo’																																							
Comic	a	b	c	d	e	g	h	i	j	l	m	n	f	o	p	k	q	r	s	t	x	u	v	w	y	z											,	.	=
Code2000																																							
Nokia																																							
qolqoS																																							
Se’vIr	a	b	c	d	e	g	h	i	j	l	m	n	f	o	p	k	q	r	s	t	x	u	v	w	y	z	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	,	.	!
Mopasan	a	b	c	d	e	g	h	i	j	l	m	n	f	o	p	k	q	r	s	t	x	u	v	w	y	z	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	,	.	!
DIn																																							
Discovery																																							
Block	A	B	C	D	E	G	H	I	J	L	M	N	F	O	P	K	Q	R	S	T	X	U	V	W	Y	Z	)	!	@	#	$	%	^	&	*	(	>	<	+
Lowres
Horta																																							