We found this image in a book about Paul Renner, the caption reads 'Sütterlin-Schrift, a model for children's handwriting in use in Germany in the early 1920s.' We found out Sütterlin-Schrift is a handwriting style rather than the name of the typeface.
Does anyone know what the name of the typeface is? Has it ever been digitalised? Is there a similar font in existence?
Many thanks in advance.
Sadly, I could find no evidence that this typeface has ever been digitized. It really should be--it's beautiful.
The following are all rounded sans-serif faces, but none have the playful numbers:
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/typedepot/centrale-sans-rounded/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/arial-rounded/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/berthold/ag-book-be-rounded/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/g-type/houschka-rounded-alt/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/jan-fromm/rooney-sans/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/cercurius/simpliciter-sans/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/btn/register-sans-btn/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/processtype/bryant-pro/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/thinkdust/hiruko-pro/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/talbot/kaleko-105-round/
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mostardesign/sofia-pro-soft/
That "Q" is nothing short of lascivious!
hhp
I've got a great fondness for school primer lettering. In trying to teach children what, exactly, a letter looks like we're in effect attempting to reduce it to its platonic essence as a great, didactic project of modernism. It's a handwriting-based approach that's quite the opposite of the chirographic one: instead of trying to fill type with the ductus of a professional lettering artist, it's trying to instil perfect regularity in the most childlike of simple writing styles.
Often it can be naive and clumsy, granted, but the best stuff is brilliant. For instance: The "SÖ-style" of semi-connected script taught in Sweden for about a decade in the 70s (as designed by lettering artist Kerstin Anckers) is marvellously legible.
And perhaps a little kinky, its tongue is licking the foot of _P_....
Don
Johan, I don't want to encourage an extended discussion of issues that are unrelated to the [presumably] Renner letters, but I can't help but ask for a brief explanation of why, if the "SÖ-style" of semi-connected script was so good, it was used only for a decade in the 1970's. Was it because of a wish to purge cursive writing from the teaching model? New focus on keyboarding?
Don
Quite the reverse: after extensive protests from traditionalists who constantly fought to undermine it, the teaching of cursive went back to 19th-century forms. When I was a child in the mid-eighties that's what we learnt and the SÖ style was purged from history. (The SÖ style was also apparently impractical to teach and hard to write for small children. But it *looks* nice.) :)
Okay, hijack over. The Renner (or whoever) primer lettering is lovely, someone sould digitize indeed.
Thanks. And I agree this calls for a digital version. No need for stylistic alternatives for this one!
Don
Thanks for all the information everyone. Think a digital version is definitely needed for this typeface.
Captured from web.archive.org on 18 Feb 2015. view this capture
I note some distinctive Renner touches such as the squared bottom on _t_. The _R_ has beautiful balance and is easy to hand write. Same goes for the numbers. BTW note the _1_ which resembles a _7_ to modern typeface conditioned eyes. This is the common way the number was hand written and was not used in standard typefaces.
Don