Phil Farrand

Creator of Finale, an award-winning, high-end desktop publishing music notation software package, Farrand is an American computer programmer, consultant, webmaster, and author. He is also known for his Nitpicker's Guides, in which he nitpicked plot holes and continuity errors in the various Star Trek television programs and movies, and for the creation of Nitcentral, a website devoted to the same activity. Subsequent to his Nitpicker's Guides, Farrand ventured into fiction as a novelist, writing "The Son, the Wind and the Reign" and "Grumpy Old Prophets: A Christmas Fable for Adults".

He earned bachelor's degrees in piano performance and in composing music. He worked as a music editor, and then worked for two years on a notation package for the Apple II series of computers, which later became Polywriter.

Later, working with Coda Music Technology, Farrand created an award-winning, high-end desktop publishing music notation software package called Finale. Now owned by MakeMusic, Finale was the industry standard for many years and remains one of the leading music notation software packages available.