About Primæ

Primæ was conceived for learning to read and to write. The type was designed by Titus Nemeth (Wiener Schriften) and Martin Tiefenthaler (typo­graphische gesellschaft austria/tga). It was initially commissioned by the Wiener Bildungs­server and its further development was supported by the Vienna Business Agency. The fonts are licensed with an open-source licence that allows free use for non-commercial purposes. You can download the most recent release here. The sources can be accessed on GitHub.

Use and distribution

Primæ has been introduced to teachers in cooperation with the Wiener Bildungs­server and other supporting institutions. Workshops are regularly offered to teachers, demonstrating the didactic and ergonomic advantages of Primæ. To facilitate its adoption in teaching, supporting material is made available free of charge.

Technicalities

The Primæ font software is available in the OpenType format, making it usable on all current platforms. Because support for OpenType functionality depends on the application, not all options are available everywhere. Since support is continually expanded, we advise to query developers about its status in their products. As can be seen on this website, Primæ is fully functional in current browsers.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all teachers and children for their interest and dedication, Yuki Sakurai, Donat Klingesberger, Gudrun Krassnitzer-Strohmaier, Sabine Neumayer-Valenti and the entire team of the Wiener Bildungsserver for its commitment to this initiative, our peer reviewers Ann Bessemans, Matthew Carter, Florian Hardwig, Sami Kortemäki, Alice Savoie, and Just Van Rossum for their expertise, the Vienna Business Agency for the financial backing, Georg Seifert and Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer for the technical support, and all our predecessors – such as Alfred Fairbank, Renate Tost, and Hans Eduard Meier – for the foundations upon which we have built. As in any human enterprise, we are standing on the shoulders of giants.