Playwrite is a typeface engine that allows the creation of primary school cursive fonts.
Through its website, the Department of Basic Education produces and distributes documents that outline curricula, educational goals and guidelines, implementation notes, and assessment policies. The Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) outlines the steps and objectives for handwriting instruction and specifies that students learn motor skills in Grade R, and unjoined upper and lowercase letters in Grade 1. They then gain speed and proficiency in Grade 2, and proceed to cursive writing. The document does not, however, prescribe any handwriting models that should be used for teaching.
Despite the absence of a recommended model, teachers, specialised publishers and educational resource providers have converged when it comes to their choice of fonts for handwriting education. Geometric “ball and stick” letters are used for the first stage of instruction, and a very slanted continuous cursive style thereafter.
This continuous cursive features a gentle slope and a relatively slow pace of construction. The uppercase letters incorporate cursive elements, with looped descenders in 'G', 'J', 'Y', and 'Z' enhancing their fluidity. The lowercase letters have looped ascenders and descenders to support seamless connections between letters. Notably, this style does not include curved entry strokes in 'm', 'n', 'v', and 'w', which is a departure from typical continuous cursives. However, it includes distinctly curved shapes in the letters 'x' and 'z', adding a dynamic element to the overall script.
