Released in 2018 by the education departments of Fribourg and Neuchâtel, NE FR Typo Libre is a free typeface for handwriting instruction based on GE Typo Libre, a previous design developed by authorities from the canton of Geneva three years prior. It is part of Moyens d’Enseignement Romands (MER), or Romand Teaching Resources, published by Conférence intercantonale de l’instruction publique et de la culture de la Suisse romande et du Tessin (CIIP), or Intercantonal Conference on Public Education and Culture in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.
Sample pages of student booklets Geste d’écriture – Français 3e, from CIIP support materials. (Bürki, 2024)
NE FR Typo Libre is used in classrooms from the third grade onwards to teach écriture cursive liée, or connected cursive writing. Before that in preschool, first and second grades, students are taught écriture scripte, or print script, using the typeface Script-École, which shares many formal similarities with the geometric sans serif design, Avant Garde.
This cursive model reinterprets the traditional French cursive style with some modifications. The lowercase is fully connected, and the shapes are somewhat narrow. Uppercase letters use simplified forms instead of decorative ones, and inter-letter connections are in the form of straight diagonal strokes, a departure from curved strokes used traditionally.
