An independent archive of typography.
Topics
Formats
Typefaces

Pennenstreken (writing method)

Contributed by Frank E. Blokland on Dec 13th, 2012. Artwork published in .
Pennenstreken (writing method) 1
Uitgeverij Zwijsen. License: All Rights Reserved.

Around 1995 the Dutch Type Library adapted and digitized the Pennenstreken (‘Pen-strokes’) fonts for a writing method for primary schools from the Dutch publisher Zwijsen. Until that moment the examples in the exercise books were written by hand and inconsistencies in the writing method were relatively easy circumvented by the calligraphers. In the digital versions these inconsistencies had to corrected as much as possible, this way reducing the amount of ad hoc variants.

The artwork was basically formed by scans from earlier handwritten editions of the method. These were enlarged, if necessary corrected with ink and white paint, and manually digitized in the IKARUS format. The method was complex with initial, medial and final variants of the letters. This was in the pre-OpenType era, and PostScript Type1 nor TrueType made use of OpenType Layout features, of course. And there were different versions for text and display. So, the resulting number of fonts was impressive, the accompanying manual proportionally complex.

Only occasionally the Dutch Type Library works for third parties. Basically this is only done when the offered work is considered interesting and challenging. This project was both.

Pennenstreken (writing method) 2
Uitgeverij Zwijsen. License: All Rights Reserved.
Pennenstreken (writing method) 3
Uitgeverij Zwijsen. License: All Rights Reserved.
Pennenstreken (writing method) 4
Uitgeverij Zwijsen. License: All Rights Reserved.
Pennenstreken (writing method) 5
Uitgeverij Zwijsen. License: All Rights Reserved.

Typefaces

  • Pennenstreken
  • Gill Sans

Formats

Topics

Designers/Agencies

Artwork location

1 Comment on “Pennenstreken (writing method)”

  1. Hendrika van der schors says:
    Oct 1st, 2015 3:50 pm

    Zou u mij een proef exemplaar van pennestreken kunnen toesturen

    H van der Schors

    Cursastraat 16

    9801VD Zuidhorn

Post a comment