2001 fonts, was--?

[Martel art]

I've got to stop composing online. If I get knocked offline I lose it all,
which is what happened to the first post of this.
***

Someone wanted to know about the fonts in 2001's credits, title cards and
intermission. Geoff said they're the same, I don't recall the intermission.
However, you've finally hit something I'm an authority on--20+ years of graphic
design.

The short answer is, Futura Extra Lite/Thin/Hairline/Ultra Lite--not sure of
the exact name, but one of those is 95% accurate. What complicates matters are:
several generations of typesetting from hot metal, to photo-typesetting, to
computer typesetting, to desktop publishing; national differences in type
foundries; font names; and copyright laws.
2001's titles could have been metal, photo- or computer-typeset (specialized
pre-PC computers, begun I think in the early 60s). Fonts cannot be copyrighted,
so one manufacturer may issue a knock-off font with one or two minor design
changes and a sound-alike name. PC users may know Helvetica as Helios or
somesuch. In the states, Sparta (if memory serves) was very similar to Futura.
Geoff uses something similar to Gill Sans for The Kubrick Site (note the
capital R), akin to Syntax. (Eric Gill is one of the world's top font
designers.) Gothic is an old blanket term for sans serifs, it may be part of a
font's name.
With DTP, we're used to using font families consisting of book, bold, italic,
bold italic, sometimes demi or black weights. Futura ExLite/Hairline/UltraLite
etc. is a specialty display font not as readily available, then or now. The
mid-sixties saw such twiggy fonts in vogue; they're back now.
There are national differences in fonts, partly due to different manufacturers
but also due to different needs for umlauts, accent marks, pound symbols and
the like. DTP has increased the internationalization of typography, as most
fonts are restricted to 256 characters, but Macs and PCs and font designers
assign different characters to various 'slots.' Which explains the occaisional
garbage onscreen. @~!#%! The internet adds another generation of needs.
Futura began I believe as a Bauhaus project. Early versions looked very punk
with mixed line weights within a single character. As it was refined it took on
the look that is familiar today. Differences in letterspacing, weight and
condensation have made it very versatile, used to convey everything from
WPA/30's social realism to refined nightclub elegance to BMW ads. One widely
overlooked key to capturing the look of 2001's credits is not the characters,
but the spaces between them, and the vertical symmetries. Sort of like the
film.
English designers have used Gill more when Americans preferred Helvetica. Or
more probably, each has had access to different foundries. I'm unsure of
Futura's role across the pond. If one of our English correspondents could
query a type house/designer for specs--?

Mark Martel