Pismo Szkolne is a typeface that was first developed by Grzegorz Klimczewski in 2001, and is published by Polskie Fonty. Klimczewski first became interested in fonts for handwriting education and solving problems related to letter connections in the 1990s. In 2014, he was commissioned by the Ministerstwo Edukacji Narodowej (MEN), or Ministry of National Education, to update the typeface, and the latest iteration, released in 2015, is now used in the primers published by the Ośrodek Rozwoju Edukacji (ORE), or Education Development Center.
The typeface is used in handwriting primers for Grades 1–3 (7–9 years old), where it appears alongside a serif typeface which is used for reading.
Pismo Szkolne is a fully-joined upright cursive design that, unlike other continuous cursives, requires pen lifts for the drawing of certain letters, the most identifiable one being the “k”. Ascenders of lowercase letters are medium-length and un-looped, except in the “f”, which connects to the next letter by its bar. Also note the “ł”, where the slash is attached to the letter on the top, rather than crossing over it. Some uppercase letters, like the “A”, “M”, “N”, “S”, “V” and “W”, have features similar to print letters, while others, like “E”, “L” and “U”, are clearly based on undecorated cursive styles.
