Verbonden schrift

Countries

Netherlands

Languages

Dutch

Model parameters

Uppercase

Cursive

Lowercase

Continuous Cursive

Connection

Fully-joined

Slant

Very Slanted

Update

18.12.2024

According to a 2012 survey conducted by the Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen (OCW), or Ministry Education, Culture and Science, books that teach the Pennenstreken method are the most widely used in Dutch primary schools. They are published by Zwijsen, a company that has produced educational publications since 1850.

Sample cursive and print script models from Pennestreken schrijven. (van Gils et al., 2014)

Like materials created by other private publishers, the Pennenstreken book series presents simplified print letters and a fully-joined cursive hand, locally known as verbonden schrift. In the mid-1990s Zwijsen commissioned the Dutch Type Library (DTL) to digitise their existing handwriting samples, and with those digitisations as a foundation, create a custom typeface for the publication.

The resulting font is a fully-joined, looped, continuous cursive with generous ascenders and descenders, and a pronounced slant. Its uppercase letters are all cursive, except the “S”, which is in a print script style. All letters are relatively narrow and lack decoration. The lowercase shapes are similarly simple and unadorned, with only a few distinctive features such as the mirrored bottom loop in the “f”, the connecting stroke leading out of the descender in “q”, and the italic style “z”.

References

  • Blokland, F.E., 2012. Pennenstreken (writing method) [WWW Document]. Fonts in Use. URL https://fontsinuse.com/uses/2410/pennenstreken-writing-method (accessed 1.23.23).

  • Pennenstreken [WWW Document], 2023. www.zwijsen.nl/. URL https://www.zwijsen.nl/lesmethodes/pennenstreken/ (accessed 1.22.23).

  • van Gils, M., Legierse, L., van der Meulen, M., 2014. Pennenstreken – Schrijfboeken verbonden schrift, 2nd edition. ed, 1-8. Zwijsen Uitgeverij, Amsterdan.