This article is using Klingon symbols known as pIqaD. It is possible that some devices do not display them correctly.

fonts comparison chart

Klingon Computer Fonts

There are several computer fonts available in the web showing Klingon pIqaD.

History

Mandel's Klingon letters

The first True Type Font (TTF) with pIqaD letters was created by Lawrence M. Schoen, shortly before he founded the KLI. It displayed the standard and today mostly known pIqaD letters. In 1992 one could buy it directly from the KLI. (1)

Before beginning the KLI, Schoen was designing laserfonts for nonRoman orthographies. The first Klingon font he had made was called Klinzhai, which did not contain any symbols which we identify today as pIqaD. Instead, the characters were taken from the book entitled The U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Manual, by Geoffrey Mandel of 1980. Schoen released the font as shareware and asked users to send in $5 for it. After more than a thousand downloads on hundreds of BBS servers, he had received only $10 in shareware fees.(2)

pIqaD fromt the Mortas-Te-Kaase newsletter

When the KLI began he took the Klinzhai font (also referred to as the "Mandel characters" because of the author of the book where they came from) and added the character set from the films and TNG, based on the mapping which was suggested in a newsletter of the Klingon fan group Mortas-Te-Kaase. Mandel on the lowercase, the other typeface (often erroneously called the Okuda font) on the uppercase. When Schoen upgraded his font, he also cleaned up the kerning pairs on the Klinzhai portion, so even the Mandel characters looked better on the newer disks. The new font was called KLIpIqaDmey and looked like the pIqaD we are now using. This font was then bundled with a klingonesque looking Roman font called KLIroman and sold on a disk rather than as shareware. When the KLI went nonprofit he formally gave all rights for the fonts to the KLI. The disk was then sold by the KLI for $13 and was available in both PostScript Type1 and TrueType formats, for both Macintosh and PC platforms.(3)

The font which was created by the KLI was soon ripped off and sold at conventions without the KLI's permission. A similar - ripped - version was later found under the web using the name KlingonTNG. (see below)

Easy mapping

There are two kind of fonts around: "easy" fonts are simple fonts which can be used without any special software or settings. You can just write in any software you like and change the font, for instance type XIFAN and then change the font to KLIpIqaDmey or KlingonTNG to get the word tlhIngan written in klingon letters. The mapping of the letters is somehow different from what you may think, especially since letters as ch and tlh are considered as one letter. These can be used to generate print documents, but only work in environments where the font is available and copy-and-pasting may not work.

Roman mapping

In 2019, language inventor David J. Peterson released the pIqaD Roman font that allows Latin-alphabet Klingon text to be displayed in pIqaD without any unusual character mapping.(4) The pIqaD Roman font (version 4) is available Hol 'ampaS.(5)

Character mapping

To type the Klingon letters using the following fonts(6), you must stroke the following keys. This character mapping differs from xifan-hol mapping (see below) in that it uses an apostrophe instead of a to input the qaghwI'.

Klingon letter	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	'	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	,	.
typed letter	`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`	`'`	`1`	`2`	`3`	`4`	`5`	`6`	`7`	`8`	`9`	`0`	`,`	`.`
displayed letter	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	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	,	.

xifan-hol mapping

Sometimes, software cannot easily be taught the difference between q and Q or it may cause problems having an apostrophe in software. To avoid this, on can use the xifan-hol system. Some people also prefer this mapping, since it makes typing on small devices easier, for instance when using the software boQwI'.

Klingon letter	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	'	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	,	.
typed letter	`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`	`1`	`2`	`3`	`4`	`5`	`6`	`7`	`8`	`9`	`0`	`,`	`.`
displayed letter	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	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	,	.

This system is used for writing pIqaD in this wiki.

KLIpIqaDmey

The KLI's pIqaD was the first available font displaying klingon letters (see history above). In 1992, one could buy it directly from the KLI(7). This font face (but maybe not the same font software) has been used in most cases of displayed pIqaD: HolQeD, Talk Now, Monopoly.

KLIpIqaDmey has a few obvious disadvantages:

the obsolete Mandel character set is the easiest accessible (lowercase), while the "true" pIqaD have been stuffed in there more as an extra than as the main character set, since they are on the upper case letters.
it uses the special characters available on the shifted number keys (exclamation mark, at, number sign etc.) to achieve the Klingon numerals. This is not a good idea, since it demands that the U.S. Qwerty keyboard layout is used for the placement of the numerals to be correct. On any other keyboard layout this becomes an annoyance.
it lacks the newer punctuation marks found in the SkyBox Cards.

These disadvantages have been corrected by the Klingonska Akademien font KApIqaD.

KApIqaD

The KApIqaD is a adoption of the KLI's font and quite identical to it. It has some technical improvements regarding its use, that's why it's recommended to use this one. It is not compatible with KLIpIqaDmey, since the mapping is slightly different. KA in the name stands for its creator "Klingonska Akademien", which is Zrajm, who created it in 1999. It was generated using TypeSmith Amiga v2.5b. Technically not signs of writing, the symbols of the Klingon Empire (> see

Trefoil) and Klingonska Akademien < have been included in this font. (8)

KlingonTNG

This font is an italic version of the KLI's font. Parallel to the KLIpIqaDmey, this was the first font found free in the web, probably an illegally ripped off version. Its source is unknown. According to its file information, it was made with "Altsys Metamorphosis", generated by "Fontographer 3.5" in August 1994.

Klingon Block

This font is a very straight simple-line font, resembling the Nokia font. It was created by Terrence Donnelly in 1997, acompanied with a conversion software to change t-l-h-I-n-g-a-n written words into tlh-I-ng-a-n. The special point in this font is the mapping of minor case letters with latinized transcription, while major case letters represent the pIqaD letters.

Unicode mapping

These fonts either require a special software to be used, or you must know in which area the letters are stored. You cannot just type and change the font. The mapping of this font is entirely different, because the symbols are saved at the so called "private use area" of the Unicode.

Chris Lipscombe (known as qurgh) has developed software which allows pIqaD letters to be used in Windows and other systems. For this purpose, he has created a pIqaD keyboard layout, a Unicode pIqaD font and a registry script to link the font into the system. The software enables pIqaD to be used in any unicode aware application without having to make specific font changes. (9)

Unfortunately, several browsers or webpages do not support that and will either show strange squares or nothing at all. Most readers of this page will see the following as squares, or nothing: 

The following fonts all work with Chris' software, because they use the same unicode mapping.

Bing pIqaD

Created for the Bing translator by Microsoft employee Shawn Steele. The font is licensed under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL). (10)(11)

Code 2000

The Code2000 is a Unicode-based font trying to eventually represent all of the extended characters and symbols assigned to the Basic Multilingual Plane of Unicode in one typeface. The current version (1.171) has over 60,000 glyphs, including Klingon. It was developed by James Kass in 1998 (12)

Horta

This typeface created in 2016 by Tim Larson from Minnesota (13) is based on The Original Series title cards. Different from the other fonts, this font includes both latin letters (with a Star Trek Title look) and Klingon letters. (14)

Klingon pIqaD vaHbo'

Martok's Signature

Designed in November 2004 by Mike Neff. He made them available in 2009. Michael Everson has edited the files so they fit actual computer standards and work properly. (15) The font software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1.

This font has been used to display General Martok's signature in Haynes Bird Of Prey Manual. That makes you think that one can consider this some kind of handwritten pIqaD.

Klingon pIqaD Mandel

Klingon pIqaD HaSta

Also designed by Mike Neff in July 2005 and made available in 2009 edited by Michael Everson. This font has been used to display all Klingon text in Haynes Bird Of Prey Manual.

Nokia Pure HL KLGN (Light/Regular/Bold)

This font was created for an April Fool gag by cell phone company Nokia in 2013, but it's also usable on the computer.

pIqaD by qurgh

This font looks almost identical to the KLI's pIqaD. It was created by Chris Lipscombe.

Star Trek Discovery

For the announcement of the Klingon actors of the new TV show Star Trek: Discovery in December 2016, a new font was presented. Later promotional posters and some scenes during the show revealed the missing letters one by one, so the alphabet is almost completely known. The font is not yet released for download. See main article pIqaD used in Discovery