In Croatia, the official handwriting model for teaching, which includes four typefaces and matching italics, was developed by Prof. Siniša Reberski and introduced country-wide by the Ministarstvo znanosti i obrazovanja, or Ministry of Science and Education in 2013.
This typeface family and accompanying research was the outcome of Reberski’s association with the Ministarstvo’s programme for creating linguistic and handwriting standards, which also resulted in his book Početno pisanje na hrvatskom jeziku, or Beginning writing in the Croatian language, co-written with Ante Bežen.
According to this approach, students learn školsko formalno pismo, or school formal alphabet, in the first grade. They start with its upright form, and then its italic variant, which serves as a precursor to learning školsko rukopisno pismo, or school cursive alphabet.
The cursive alphabet is slightly narrow and slanted, and based on oval foundational forms. Uppercase letters are semi-joining and somewhat ornate. Many feature an in-stroke at the top in lieu of a serif. “B”, “D”, “E” and “L” have a microloop on the baseline to prevent deformation. The lowercase is a continuous cursive that joins fully. Notably “f” features a distinctive ascender loop that extends only from the x-height to the ascender height.
