Practicing Consistent Letter Height - Your Thoughts?

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Generally speaking, I feel that my handwriting is pretty good. If I write slowly, I can make it incredibly neat, but more often than not that takes far too much time for general-purpose writing. My biggest problem seems to be letter height and some wandering. I'm sure some of you can pick out a lot more that's wrong with it and I'd love to hear some feedback on simple improvements that can be corrected with a bit of focused practice.

 

Thanks!

 

Edited November 2, 2014 by TheRealScubaSteve

[Yuki.M.B]

I'll be honest, You have very nice hand writing
Personally I wish I could write as neatly as you do. If you do continue to improve I would very much like to see how it goes from here onward.
Good luck with improving your writing!

[sd10521]

Much better than mine.

I might have to try some French Ruled Paper to see if that helps.

Thank you for posting.

[linearM]

You have very legible handwriting with pleasing letter forms. I think you need to discriminate between handwriting and calligraphy. I know if I were to make every letter I write a calligraphic masterpiece I would never get a letter off. Of course you can always work to improve your handwriting, you have observed that your writing doesn't stay on the line and aren't satisfied with the inconsistent height of the letters, and that is a matter of practice and concentration.

 

Probably almost everyone finds that their writing is better if they slow down and take their time. I know mine does. That is probably the reason fountain pens are supposed to improve ones handwriting.

[TheRealScubaSteve]

The first sample was written with a Jinhao 599 (on loan) with custom nib by LahLahLaw. The picture below was written with a M Platinum Preppy.

 

You have very legible handwriting with pleasing letter forms. I think you need to discriminate between handwriting and calligraphy. I know if I were to make every letter I write a calligraphic masterpiece I would never get a letter off. Of course you can always work to improve your handwriting, you have observed that your writing doesn't stay on the line and aren't satisfied with the inconsistent height of the letters, and that is a matter of practice and concentration.

 

Probably almost everyone finds that their writing is better if they slow down and take their time. I know mine does. That is probably the reason fountain pens are supposed to improve ones handwriting.

 

I'll be honest, You have very nice hand writing
Personally I wish I could write as neatly as you do. If you do continue to improve I would very much like to see how it goes from here onward.
Good luck with improving your writing!

 

Thanks for the nice comments. Perhaps more pens will be an excuse to "practice." I'd like to learn how to use a flex nib - my control over the Konrad is quite atrocious.

 

I might have to try some French Ruled Paper to see if that helps.

 

It'd be worth picking one up just to try. The cheapest is only $3 at GPC for Clairefontaine paper and 50 sheets. Compared to regular lined paper, it does appear to be very much more consistent and looks much neater. I have not tried to focus on consistency much before, though.

[TSherbs]

consistent letter height?

 

interesting pursuit, but I don't find it worth the time

 

but then, here I am typing this

[linearM]

You can find different rulings on the internet, cut and paste them into a word document and print them with your printer. I've done basically the same in making my own letterhead stationery. Look for free printable paper templates. Also, check downloads here on FPN.

Edited November 2, 2014 by linearM

[cellmatrix]

I am just throwing stuff out there, but if you like using a cursive italic nib, you might want to try your hand at writing in cursive italic. I've found it easy to learn and well suited to keeping letter forms uniform. A good and straightforward resource for cursive italic is "write now" by Getty and Dubay.

 

If you are mostly writing with your fingers, try moving the pen more with your arm and shoulder. This can lead to greater uniformity overall. If you search around you will find many references to exercises to train yourself to write with arm movements. The one which worked for me was following the exercises in EC Mills "modern business penmanship" which you can download for free on IAMPETH.

Edited November 3, 2014 by cellmatrix

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Thanks for the suggestion - I'll be sure to check them out. Guilty as charged, I think. I do find myself writing with less arm and shoulder than "I'm supposed to." You'd think that it'd be learned easily I find much less fatigue writing the proper way, but there's something about an old dog and new tricks.

[ac12]

It took me 3 months of daily practice, min of 1hr a day, in order to learn and do arm writing (I used to be a finger writer). So an old dog can learn new tricks, it just takes dedication and PRACTICE to retrain your writing muscles.

 

If the French rule is confusing to use, find an online template generator and make your own ruled paper at whatever spacing you want.

Then you can use 4 lines.

• acender; capital or tall letters; A B C h f l
• lower case
• base line
• decenders; g, y, j

I find that if I do not pay attention, I used to float my writing about 1/2 to 1 mm above the base line. I found it was worse when I used an ink that was similar in color to the ruled lines on the page. I figured it was my eyes trying to separate the writing from the lines.

 

I went to the IAMPETH web site to download the various lessons and relearned the letters.

Although I did keep some of my personal letter forms that I've deveoped over the years.

 

So find a lesson and PRACTICE. And when I say practice, I mean practice as it should be, so you reinforce the correct letter form. So you will start off slow, until your hand gets used to the new letter forms.

 

gud luk

[proton007]

It took me 3 months of daily practice, min of 1hr a day, in order to learn and do arm writing (I used to be a finger writer). So an old dog can learn new tricks, it just takes dedication and PRACTICE to retrain your writing muscles.

 

I went to the IAMPETH web site to download the various lessons and relearned the letters.

Although I did keep some of my personal letter forms that I've deveoped over the years.

 

So find a lesson and PRACTICE. And when I say practice, I mean practice as it should be, so you reinforce the correct letter form. So you will start off slow, until your hand gets used to the new letter forms.

 

 

Doesn't matter if one uses ruled sheets or not. Consistency is mostly about practice, whether one practices the right or wrong shape, it'll turn out consistent.

[sidthecat]

My husband liked graph paper, so I'm using his store of it. It's a good, hard surface, but the ink likes to hide behind the lines.

[BookCat]

Maybe try using a fine nib, it might improve the appearance of your writing even more. An inexpensive one I bought a few weeks ago was the Pilot 78g with a medium nib. It's a Japanese pen, so is really a fine; the nib is smooth, unlike many fines. Try it, I think you'll like the greater clarity to the lines of your writing.

[fojeremiad]

If you want to improve letter height consistency, practice your i's n's and o's. over and over and over. Those to lead-in strokes will then impact your a, c, d, g, h, j, m, p, q, v, and y - half the lower case alphabet.

[mvarela]

Besides the advice from cellmatrix and BookCat (which beat me to my two main comments on your sample), I'd suggest to slow down a bit. You don't need to go to "calligraphic speeds", but sometimes a tiny bit longer time taken writing something makes a huge difference in the results. The French rule paper is good for practice, but I find it a bit "noisy" (which is further compounded in your sample by the nib width). Once you get the hang of it through enough practice, it's not so hard to maintain a consistent x-height. Keep at it!

[alexander_k]

Consistent letter height is my bane too. Together with the general proportions of letters (especially the relation of x-height to ascender) it determines not only legibility but also the overall appeal of a text. Practice is the main thing, as usually, and the main aspects I must learn to control effectively are speed and the positioning of my arm. Most of the time it's some hasty upstrokes that ruin consistency.