School Scripts

Florian Hardwig is a graphic designer based in Berlin, Germany, where he runs a studio together with Malte Kaune. Since 2007, he has been teaching Typography at Brunswick School of Art. Florian is a regular contributor to Fonts In Use. His photo journal is a treasure trove for lovers of hand-made signs.

School scripts are Florian’s area of expertise. In his Manuscribe project, he researches the various handwriting models that are used for teaching children how to write.

What fascinates Florian most about infant scripts is the fact that every state, every culture has its own tradition. You can easily distinguish the Spanish style (MeMimas) from Anglo-American ones (School Script), and detect “dialects” of handwriting. Even in this seemingly negligible field of school letterforms, a lot of history is reflected. For example, 25 years after the Reunification, German school authorities still indulge in two “West” models — the classic Lateinische Ausgangsschrift AKA FF Schulschrift B or Latinum SB, and the reformed Vereinfachte Ausgangschrift AKA FF Schulschrift A or VA-Script SB — and one “East” script, Renate Tost’s Schulausgangsschrift AKA FF Schulschrift C.

School script models are not always available as retail fonts. Here a few that can be licensed. Note that the connections and flow of some of these fonts, like FF Schulschrift, improve when OpenType features are switched on.

See also: Monolinear Casual Scripts.