Typeset in the Future

Examples of Eurostile from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moon, and WALL•E.

Eurostile, its precursor Microgramma, and the very similar Bank Gothic, are sans-serif fonts used in many Science Fiction films to give a futuristic feel. In fact, they have been used so often that the presence of these fonts in the credits or set design now actually helps viewers to quickly understand the setting of the scene. They are most commonly used in their bold extended versions.

Common uses of Eurostile (typically its extended font) include signs on the inside (and outside) of spaceships; important text on computer display screens (especially those that need to be readable in long shots); dramatic film titles; and overlays on positioning shots to establish the location and / or chronology of the scene. A namesake blog keeps track of productions using typefaces like this.

Attempts to avert this, like several depiction, usually 90s fiction, of the future with stylized texts, resulted in an Unintentional Period Piece with all those weird-looking "futuristic" fonts, as legible typesets are Truth in Television come the 2010s onward.

Compare and contrast Foreign-Looking Font when used in an historical context.

See also We Will Use WikiWords in the Future.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Albedo: Erma Felna EDF uses Eurostile as part of the logo of the comic book itself, but not in-universe.

Film — Animated

• WALL•E uses Eurostile for its on-wall direction signs.
• Pixar also use Eurostile in The Incredibles, on Syndrome's computer.
• Eurostile is also used in plenty of the spy technology in Cars 2.
• Arthur Christmas uses Bank Gothic for its interstitial location overlays.

Film — Live-Action

• The user interface for HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey uses Eurostile Bold Extended, and is almost certainly the Trope Maker for this particular trope.
  • In its sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, all the Russian signage aboard the Leonov is set in Eurostile Bold Extended modified with Cyrillic letters. This wasn't done completely accurately: for example, an inverted V is used for the Cyrillic equivalent to L, making it look like the Greek Λ (used in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian) instead of the more correct Russian Л.
• The title slide for Terminator Salvation is set in Eurostile Bold Extended. Eurostile is also used for on-screen computer interface designs throughout the film.
• Moon features Eurostile (and particularly Eurostile Bold Extended) throughout its set design and on-screen UI.
• Ever since Star Trek: The Motion Picture, exterior markings on all Federation spacecraft were set in Eurostile Bold Extended. In the alternate universe created in Star Trek (2009), Eurostile (Regular) Extended is used instead.
  • A special font, Starfleet Bold Extended (identical to Eurostile but with red borders drawn around each letter), was created for the forward-facing hull registry on the primary saucer, and was used on nearly every Starfleet vessel in a film or series set after The Motion Picture. Machine Extended, the font used in the original series, was used on Star Trek: Enterprise and on the Kelvin in the 2009 film.
• In Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, the fictional Aurebesh alphabet first appears in a Eurostile-like font, on a computer in the opening sequence. However, later uses of the alphabet would use a font more reminiscent of Bank Gothic.
• G-Force uses Eurostile Bold Extended in its title slide.
• District 9 uses Eurostile in its opening sequences.
• The original The Andromeda Strain film uses Eurostile Bold Extended for on-wall signage.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie uses Eurostile for the title and opening credits. This (along with the minor-key, instrumental remix of the show's theme music) is an extended joke: aping the opening of a serious sci-fi film, when this is anything but serious. The end credits are rendered in Eurostile bold.
• The Hunt for Red October uses Eurostile Extended for its on-screen interstitials.
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire uses Bank Gothic extensively in its teaser trailer.
• Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa uses a metallic Eurostile Bold Extended text style for deliberate pseudo-dramatic effect in its teaser trailer.
• Elysium uses Eurostile Extended for its interstitial text overlays.
• Pacific Rim uses Eurostile Extended and Bold Extended for its feature end credit sequence, and Bank Gothic for its main end credits crawl. It also features a Eurostile Extended-like font throughout the film's computer displays.
• The Bourne Series uses a combination of Eurostile Bold and Eurostile Regular for its opening titles and closing credits animations / end credits crawl.
• Method Studios created a custom typeface for the credits of The Avengers that looks like a squared-off variant of Bank Gothic.
• Apollo 13 uses this font for the credits and on-screen messages such as THREE MONTHS PRIOR TO LAUNCH.
• Hackers uses Eurostile Bold Extended for much of the Gibson's on-screen text display.
• "All the Troubles of the World": The title is displayed in font designed for computer-reading characters, but the credits use a plainer typeset that are more universal.
• High-Rise used it in various contexts within its 1976 setting.
• The third Harry Palmer film Billion Dollar Brain (1967) used an unspecified MICR computer font for the opening titles.
• In Contact, the logo of the International Machine Consortium (IMC) is in Eurostile Bold Extended.

Literature

• Beyond Time and Space: The cover of this 1986 book uses Westminster typeface beneath the title, with random lines of letters, numbers, and symbols to imply rapid and complex thinking by the face on the cover.
• Computer Crimes and Capers: The title of this 1983 book uses Westminster typeface on the spine, to emphasize the book's focus on computers.
• Mind to Mind: The 2009 cover of this Genre Anthology has the title in a font similar to the Westminster typeface, evoking a computery feel to a book devoted to Psychic Powers.
• Science Fiction Special: Special 1 uses a font imitative of Westminster typeface to emphasize its Science Fiction nature.

Live-Action TV

• Battlestar Galactica (2003) uses Bank Gothic in its main title sequence.
• The trailer for Episode 5 of Series 7 of Doctor Who uses Bank Gothic in its Regular and Bold Extended versions.
  • The title sequence during the Second Doctor era utilised Eurostile for the captions.
• Gerry Anderson made extensive use of Microgramma in his productions, starting with Thunderbirds. In particular, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons uses Microgramma Medium Extended in its opening credits.
• The Firefly episode "Ariel" uses a very similar font to Eurostile Extended for many of the communications screens and medical controls on the planet Ariel.
• Occasionally seen on Red Dwarf, most notably as the lettering on Starbug. Became more common in later seasons (earlier, signage was mostly in a "stencil" font, to give the feel of a Used Future).
  • Across all seasons, almost all text displayed on monitors and screens were written in Eurostile Extended. It was even used in the credits sequences until Series IV, and again from Series X onwards.
    • The Red Dwarf name painted on the exterior of the ship is Eurostile Bold.

Theme Parks

• Disney Theme Parks:
  • Epcot Center for the longest time used the proprietary "World Bold" font for the Future World section of the park. Here is an aproximation of the font. It comes with both uppercase and lower case letters but was prominent in most signage. For the park's updates around the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World, the font was updated with a rounder and less harsh design, represented by Possiblity Bold.

Video Games

• Cyberpunk 2077 use the open-sourced Google Fonts typeset Rajdhani for basically everything digital, including the user interface.
• Mass Effect rather famously uses Korataki for EVERYTHING, including menu headers, ship names, room names, high score boards and more (it's perhaps only more well-known as the font used for the Terminator logos). The font used for the word "Effect" in the logo was Handel Gothic up until Mass Effect: Andromeda and the Legendary Edition of the original trilogy, and it was also used as the body text for the first game (starting with the second game, it was replaced with Myriad Pro).
• Starting with Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet & Clank games used Microgramma Bold Extended for headers. For every PlayStation 3 title, Eurostile was used for the body text, while Ratchet & Clank (2016) uses Aguda for the body text.
• Team Fortress 2 has a map in development called Asteroid that takes place on a space base. Naturally, the signage thus far is all in Eurostile.
• Doom³ and Doom (2016) primarily use Eurostile or Microgramma. Averted with the classic games and Doom Eternal, which primarily uses more stylized fonts (for Eternal, apart from the title part of "Eternal" that is written with typeset, most, if not all human or UAC made structure still use typesets).

Web Animation

• In the Homestar Runner DVD-exclusive Strong Bad Email "Accent", a Eurostile-like font called Square721 BT is the font used on the Zappy XT6, Strong Bad's computer from "five years in the future".

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