Primarium

In early 2022, TypeTogether launched Primarium, a groundbreaking project exploring how Latin script-based handwriting is taught to primary school students across five continents and over 40 countries. This freely accessible resource offers unique insights for both typographic and educational communities.

As digital devices dominate classrooms, handwriting education remains a debated topic. Experts discuss its cognitive benefits and effective teaching methods. Primarium highlights the diverse, evolving approaches to handwriting instruction globally, offering an in-depth analysis of how children learn to read and write, from curricula to classroom methods.

The research is extensive, involving legislative documents, curricula, academic studies, and interviews with teachers, parents, and designers. This data serves as a foundation for future studies. A key result is Playwrite, an open-source tool that creates country-specific handwriting fonts with customizable features like stroke speed, extender size, weight, and slant.

Developed with support from Google Fonts, Brazil’s Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), and global collaborators, Primarium showcases the power of cross-cultural cooperation. It’s a valuable resource for educators and typographers, documenting current handwriting models and setting the stage for further exploration.

Further information here.