Playwrite IT Trad

Most Latin handwriting in the world goes back to the hands written in Renaissance Italy, so an Italian school cursive has a long family tree behind it. The one this font follows is younger, an upright cursive worked out in the first half of the 20th century and written into Italy’s national school guidelines in 1945, according to the handwriting scholar Francesco Ascoli. Trad stands for tradizionale. (There is a separate Playwrite font for the newer approach that Italian educators have been trying since handwriting standards started slipping early in this century.)

Upright, fully joined, short in the ascenders and descenders. The capitals are simplified print letters, with a couple of quirks you can spot at once: the I has serifs, the M stands on plain legs. In the lowercase, f, g, j and y loop their descenders back up to reach the next letter, b and p close their bowls, k takes 2 strokes, and the f has no loop at the top.

Veronika Burian and José Scaglione drew it at TypeTogether for the Playwrite series, 4 weights from Thin to Regular. It runs wide, so give it room, a card or the cover of a school notebook more than a column of text.