Prima

Prima is a typeface family that has been designed to help in learning to read and write. Its premise is that children who learn to write have the right to a type that is as elegant as it is functional; the right to a typeface of quality that facilitates teaching and learning.

To achieve this, Prima was designed with a set of core principles: Regular and cursive were conceived with a unified design concept in which separate and connected letterforms share much of their architecture. The resulting close formal relation between them ensures that learners already know strokes and proportions when they advance from one style to the other.

The cursive style is optimized for ergonomic stroke sequences, fluidity, and even spacing. Connections between letters are a distinct set of shapes, providing exceptional liberties in joining individual letters. The resulting writing techniques make the cursive particularly conducive to writing.

Prima allows for variation, offering multiple proven solutions, rather than a single prescriptive design. Through numerous stylistic sets Prima caters to diverse didactic approaches and offers teachers the freedom to address the specific needs of their pupils.

Not all connections are compulsory: whilst proven connections between all letters are presented to aid swift and efficient joining, children are free to interrupt words, and Prima supports this with optional break points.

Formally the shapes of Prima are pared down to their essence: proven manuscript forms that follow principles of writing logic and ergonomics. The type was conceived to guide pupils in the development of their own personal hand—it is not a prescription but a recommendation of tried and tested solutions. Prima offers a foundation upon which an individual hand can evolve.

Prima

Designers: Titus Nemeth and Martin Tiefenthaler
Type foundry: Wiener Schriften 
Release date: February 2023
Weights: Regular, Cursive
File formats: OTF, TTF, WOFF2
Test version
Prices: Free for non-commercial use (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), for commercial licensing options please contact