Primus-Antiqua, together with Primus-Kursiv (italic) and a halbfett (bold), was designed in-house at VEB Typoart, apparently as a socialist clone of Excelsior (Linotype, 1931), see also Zhurnalnya. First cast in 1950. Also adapted for machine typesetting. [Typoart-Musterkartei] Not to be confused with Primus (Berthold, 1962).

In 1987, Karl-Heinz Lange at Typoart reworked it for phototypesetting, adding two condensed weights with italics, plus a bold expanded style. [Reichardt] Cyrillics were in the works. The family was now named Primus. [Kapr/Schäfer: Fotosatzschriften, 1989] Berthold Fototypes offered the original 3 styles as film type. It is unclear whether Leslie Usherwood’s Primus (Typesettra, 2 weights) is related to Primus-Antiqua.

Digital versions by The Font Company (1992, regular, bold, bold condensed) and Elsner+Flake (2009?, all 8 styles of Lange’s version, 6 of them also in a “TB” version optimized for smaller sizes). Borgis (RMU, 2012) appears to be based on it, too. In all these versions, the ear of ‘g’ in the regular weight is round (as in Lange’s reworking) and not hooked (as in Excelsior and the metal Primus-Antiqua). Primus Antique is is a grunged version by Henrik Hargitai (2010).