- Alpha Release 0.2
A modern instructional typeface for early readers.
Reading-Guide is a custom font designed to support early literacy, drawing inspiration from the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) and the Direct Instruction (DISTAR) method by Siegfried Engelmann. It aims to improve letter-sound correspondence without the long-term drawbacks associated with prior phonics-first typefaces.
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Phonics-aligned ligatures
Automatically merges common phonemes (e.g., "sh", "th", "wh") into single glyphs to reinforce sound units visually. -
Smooth transition to standard orthography
Unlike ITA, Reading-Guide maintains close resemblance to standard English letterforms to avoid re-learning. -
Multiple weights
Will include Bold, Regular Century Schoolbook variants to accommodate various reading levels and print media. -
Flexible usage
Designed for web, screen and print, this font is ideal for educators, caregivers, and curriculum developers.
The Initial Teaching Alphabet was revolutionary but had flaws:
- ❌ Too different from the standard alphabet — led to misspellings and confusion when transitioning to regular text.
- ❌ Assumed a 1:1 sound-to-letter mapping — failed to teach the complexity of English spelling (e.g., knight vs. night, lute vs. loot).
While the DISTAR method promoted direct instruction:
- ❌ The font used in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons was bold, oversized, and not visually aligned with traditional fonts.
- ❌ Content is limited to those contained within lessons, and does not allow for reading other reading materials utilizing the method.
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Transitional
Phases out over time as children become fluent — not meant to replace the standard alphabet permanently. -
Legible and Elegant
Carefully constructed glyphs support visual discrimination without sacrificing aesthetics. -
Contextual Ligatures
Dynamically reinforces digraphs and blends through OpenType features. Based on TeX-Gyre-Schola (refer to the GUST Font License). Allows young readers to consume content across different forms of media.
Webfonts are available within woff2 and woff formats, refer to webfont usage for instructions on use.
A Live example of webfonts is available which demonstrates the fallback to base css, and provides an example implementation of utilizing subscript to represent silent letters.
A sample storybook using the Reading-Guide font is available:
📘 The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter (Public Domain) This beloved classic has been re-typeset using the Reading-Guide font to showcase its effectiveness in natural reading contexts.
- Finalize glyph set for all phonemes and font weights
- Publish as a webfont with CSS fallback
- Release workflow for prosody / phoneme mapping to graphemes
- Address phonemic variants by local accent
- Develop teacher resource kit
The font is licensed under the TeX-Gyre-Schola (refer to the GUST Font License)
If you believe in the mission of early literacy and better phonics design:
⭐ Star this project to follow its development and help spread the word!