Playwrite IN

The r has a knot in it. That small twist at the shoulder, together with loops on both the ascenders and the descenders, tells you which tradition Playwrite IN comes from: Vere Foster’s New Civil Service models, set down by an Irish-born British diplomat in the second half of the 19th century and still echoed in Indian handwriting books.

It is a continuous cursive on a slant, with extenders of middling length. Several lowercase letters start on a curved entry stroke and the q leaves on a short flick in its descender. Capitals are dressier than the rest, the A and H most of all with their elaborated crossbars. Keep those capitals for names and first letters; a whole word of them gets busy.

Veronika Burian and José Scaglione made it at TypeTogether for Playwrite, a set of school fonts grown out of Primarium, which records how primary children around the world are taught to write. There are 4 weights, Thin, Extra Light, Light and Regular, and the variable version slides between them. Coverage runs past 150 languages written in Latin, and there are 9 stylistic sets.

A teacher who wants ruled lines behind the letters should take the sibling, Playwrite IN Guides. The plain version has no lines, and it is fine for a party invitation as much as a classroom.