KTF Prima

KTF Prima began over a decade ago during Yevgeniy Anfalov’s studies at ECAL, sparked by an interest in Forma, a modernist sans serif often perceived as warmer than its contemporaries due to its proportions and restrained contrast. Forma’s history, shaped by the shift from metal type to phototypesetting at Italy’s Nebiolo foundry in the late 1960s and 1970s, raised questions about authorship, production, and longevity that later informed Prima.

Anfalov’s response was to design a typeface focused on versatility rather than expression. Prima follows a “one style fits all” principle: instead of prioritising a single hero weight, it was developed as a coherent system ranging from ultra-thin to ultra-bold cuts, all governed by a consistent internal logic. It is intended for designers who value reliability and continuity across styles, and who prefer a compact family that performs equally well in text and display use.

Its flexibility comes from proportion rather than stylistic variation. Subtle width relationships support clarity, while a tall x-height enhances legibility. This allows Prima to remain calm and readable in interfaces and long-form text, while becoming more assertive at larger sizes. Fully redrawn from the ground up, the typeface avoids constraints inherited from obsolete production technologies, resulting in a clean and contemporary structure.

The family includes a deliberately limited set of alternates, designed to add nuance without excess. These include a rounded Forma-style “a”, a tailed “j”, a humanist “R”, a rounded “G”, softened punctuation, alternate Л and л forms, and numerals and arrows set in circular and square frames. Latin and Cyrillic scripts were developed in parallel, with the Cyrillic conceived as an extension of the Latin system rather than a separate design exercise.

Already adopted internationally, Prima positions itself as a contemporary interpretation of a classic workhorse typeface, designed to perform reliably across editorial, branding, and UI contexts.

Learn more about Kyviv Type Foundry here.

KTF Prima

Foundry: KTF (Kyviv Type Foundry)
Designer: Yevgeniy Anfalov
File Formats: OTF, TTF
Styles / widths / weights: Systematic family ranging from ultra-thin to ultra-bold,
Includes multiple weights and a structured range of optical widths, designed as a cohesive system rather than isolated display styles
Trial Version is available

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