Wiener Schriften is a digital type maker based in Vienna, Austria.
Antje Dohmann of the German Page magazine asked us some questions about our didactic type Prima and its continued development. An abridged version of the interview is featured in the current print edition and here on the web are our full answers (in German).
hashtag#writing hashtag#reading hashtag#learning hashtag#school hashtag#design hashtag#typography
Happy to say that @idiidiiidesign and I will be presenting our type Prima at the fourth G21C conference, held in Venice from 23–25 October: https://grafematik2024.sciencesconf.org/
Friends of Rudolf Koch: On Tuesday afternoon (CET), Edvinas Žukauskas, Jérôme Knebusch, and I will give a talk on Neuland and Koch Grotesk – its newest revival. The talk is at @ANRT but it will be live-streamed for all!
And unlike the first time we held this talk at the Klingspor-Museum, the new edition will be in English. Maybe you’ll dial in?
13th GRANSHAN Type Design Competition now open for submissions https://typography.guru/weekly/arc2/no131/13th-granshan-type-design-competition-now-open-for-submissions-r1152/
It’s very satisfying to finally get my foundry off the ground with some font releases, but also a little deflating to remember I only have a handful of hours per week to keep developing the rest that have been simmering on the back burner. It’s a shame that sleep is so satisfying and necessary, because it really gets in the way.
@colinmford AFAIK 'fun' has never been part of the capitalist logic of allocating means towards efficiency increases
@grautesk Thank you, much appreciated feedback! Variations and interruptions as valid options, rather than mistakes, are precisely two of the intentions of the design @tntype @idiidiiidesign
Our international advisory board included Ann Bessemans, Matthew Carter, @fhardwig, @underware's Sami Kortemäki, Alice Savoie, and @justvanrossum. Their input is gratefully acknowledged.
The fonts are licensed with the open-source license CC BY-NC-SA 4-0 and are available on GitHub:
https://github.com/WienerSchriften/Prima
Connections in Prima cursive are guided by ergonomics and writing logic rather than technical limitations.
Its letterforms are clear, unambiguous, and evenly spaced. Archaic shapes used in earlier models were replaced by letterforms children see every day.
Connections aren't compulsory: whilst proven joining forms are presented to aid swift and efficient writing, children are free to interrupt words, and Prima supports this with optional break points.
In Prima, unconnected and cursive letterforms are closely related so that learners already know strokes and proportions when they advance from one style to the other.
#Prima is a new type for learning to read and write. It was commissioned by the #Wiener #Bildungsserver and designed by @tntype and @idiidiiidesign
