Primarium

Since TypeTogether's inception, we have been committed to education and sharing knowledge. So in early 2022 we initiated a new project - Primarium - which combines that impulse with our love for letterforms. Our goal through Primarium was to learn about different approaches to Latin-based handwriting instruction around the world. In July 2023, after more than 18 months of extensive and groundbreaking research, we launched the project website, primarium.info: a free, data-rich, and accessible resource detailing how handwriting is taught in the Latin script in 40 countries.

 Working with about 100 international collaborators, we have brought together historical context with contemporary scenarios from diverse regions across five continents to paint a vibrant picture - that of handwriting's role in primary schools and the varied regional approaches to its instruction.

TypeTogether's team of researchers, editors, and designers have produced comprehensive, richly illustrated essays by country, as well as original infographics. This depth of data provides clear and unique value for everyone from educators and parents to designers and calligraphers, as well as researchers and lifelong learners.

The project website was designed keeping three objectives in mind: (1) having ease of adding new content as the research is ongoing; (2) ensuring intuitive navigation so the website is friendly to all readers; and finally, (3) creating a way to access all the information related to a specific topic without forcing the user to change pages every time they wanted to dig deeper.

First, a flexible WordPress CMS was put in place to meet the researchers' needs. Next, a fluid navigation system was devised using Ajax. Finally, an underlying structure was developed, which always kept the main content on the page, while allowing new information tabs to be opened on top of it. On the whole, the design offered comfort of navigation and focused on a warm appearance that maintained the balance between serious research and a playful sensibility that evoked children's handwriting and the innocence associated with it.

In creating Primarium's website, we pushed the limits of what could be accomplished by using typefaces in new and innovative ways. The website uses variable fonts from TypeTogether's own catalogue, and employs typography that showcases dynamic changes to letterforms to guide readers through our research. In response to mouse interactions, navigational text smoothly transforms from sans serif to serif, and subtle changes in letter widths and spacing reinforce the movement of text during page transitions.

Primarium is a living project, and we are proud to continue growing its scope and reach in several ways. In 2024 we will publish Playwrite, a suite of free typefaces tailored to the specific needs of various countries, which can be used for teaching handwriting in schools. We are already working on a book that presents the research formally for posterity, and TypeTogether is actively seeking new partners to extend the project coverage to more countries, languages, and scripts apart from Latin alone.

The Primarium project has been developed with support from Google Fonts and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil.