Primæ

Primæ is an extensive type family for learning to read and write. Its development was initially commissioned by the Wiener Bildungsserver and the first two styles, regular and cursive, were designed from 2021 to 2023 by Titus Nemeth (Wiener Schriften) and Martin Tiefenthaler (typographische gesellschaft austria/tga). From 2024 to 2025 the further development of Primæ was funded by the Vienna Business Agency, a fund of the city of Vienna, which is gratefully acknowledged.

Technicalities

Primæ uses the OpenType format and its Cursive variants rely on this functionality for the smart joining of letters. Additional OpenType features provide further, optional functionality. A comprehensive listing and demonstration of these options are found at the dedicated site schulschrift.eu.

The compiled fonts are provided in .otf, .ttf, and .woff2 formats.

The characterset of Primæ currently supports 215 languages that are written in the Latin script.

Family extent

The Primæ type family is split into two subfamilies: Primæ and Primæ Text. Both subfamilies contain ten styles each:

• Light + Light Cursive
• Semilight + Semilight Cursive
• Regular + Cursive
• Semibold + Semibold Cursive
• Bold + Bold Cursive

Primæ Text is intended for longer text setting in smaller point sizes with less interlinear space, as typically found in documents for continuous reading and on digital displays.

Design principles

In Primæ, unconnected and cursive letterforms are closely related so that learners already know strokes and proportions when they advance from one style to the other.

A central principle of Primæ is to allow for variation. It offers multiple proven solutions, rather than a single prescriptive design, to guide pupils in the development of their own hand.

In Primæ, connections were designed to allow a maximum of fluidity and evenness. The treatment of joints as separate elements allows for ergonomically sound connections between letters.

In Primæ’s cursive styles not all connections are compulsory, for nobody who writes swiftly joins every letter. Yet, it offers exemplary connections as a model. The choice whether to use them or not remains with the writer.

Releases

• Latest release

Licensing

Primæ is licensed with the CC BY-NC-SA 4-0 licence, making it freely available for non-commercial use. You may also obtain a licence for commercial use directly from the rights-holders. For details please contact the designers of Primæ, Titus Nemeth and Martin Tiefenthaler.

Installation and use

For installation of the fonts please follow the procedure suitable for your operating system. After installation you may have to restart the application in which you want to use Primæ. Primæ cursive makes use of the 'contextual alternates' OpenType feature for the connecting strokes between letters. Other optional features such as the stylistic sets also rely on support for the OpenType technology (which has been the de-facto industry standard since 2001 and become an official ISO standard in 2007). Although it is widely supported, not all applications support all features and some applications do not support any OpenType features at all. In case of doubt, please contact the developer of your application and request the update of the outdated application.

Adobe Creative Cloud applications

At the time of writing (28 September 2023), some Adobe Creative Cloud applications feature two different text composition engines that can be selected by the user. By default the older, less capable version is active and users have to choose the newer version for the shaping in Primæ Cursive to work. The names may depend on your version and interface language, but tend to reference writing systems beyond Latin, see the screenshots below:

Getting involved

Open an issue or send a suggestion to the designers of Primæ for consideration in future developments.

If you want to support the further development of Primæ financially you can make a donation through LiberaPay.

Building the fonts from source

There are a number of font editors and tools – both open source and proprietary – that can be used to build the fonts from the .ufo sources. We do not prescribe which tool is used, nor do we currently offer technical support building the fonts.