Do You Have A "test Phrase"?

[Centopar]

I'm another "Now is the time..."-er. And if it's a flex nib, the word "flexy" works as a wonderful test.

 

I also use bits of poems (my husband found a bit of Sonnet 71 recently on some paper I was testing, and told me he was worried it was the start of a suicide note). When I think about it, they *are* usually rather gloomy poems; Yeats' An Irish Airman Foresees his Death is a favourite; and Baudelaire's Le Vampire, which was a favourite when I was a slightly gothy teenager. Oh - and the bit that everyone knows from The Lays of Ancient Rome: "To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late. / And how can man die better, than facing fearful odds / For the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods?"

[sumgaikid]

I feel so dumb....all I use is the fox/lazy dog panagram and

"The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" and "Sing a song

of sixpence,pocket full of rye.............

 

 

John

[inkstainedruth]

Do all you people really have the Gettysburg Address memorized?

 

--flatline

Not me -- I only remember the first few lines.

I think I tend to remember song lyrics because a) they're more meaningful to my day to day life; I always tend to want to turn them into illustrations; and c) because I'm more likely to hear them on a regular basis -- I often have music stations or a CD playing in my car when I'm driving someplace.

Whereas, the Gettysburg Address is getting more play now only because it's the 150th anniversary of the battle and I haven't really had to know anything about the battle since my junior year in high school (and haven't been there since I was a kid. Although I do miss the Map, which we went to when I was about 10 or 12, and it was pretty cool (and I think I heard that whoever bought it is trying to restore it so that the thing works again). [if you don't know what I mean, it was this *very* large diorama of the terrain of the battlefield, with light displays showing troop movements over the course of the battle over the three days it happened.]

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[pradhith]

From beautiful Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond 149 Presentation video:

 

"The written word is forever."

 

Very touching and very true

[hungh]

"The quick brown fox..." or whatever comes to mind, so a lot of "I'm hungry"s and the like

I'll also use the first couple of phrases from the Thousand Character Classic to test writing in Chinese.

[sumgaikid]

"Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.

While these fleas flew freezy breeze blew.

Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.

Freezy trees made these trees' cheese freeze.

That's what made these three free fleas sneeze."

 

Oddly enough, it's easier to write than it is to type.

 

--flatline

 

I like this one--it's one of the toughest tongue twisters I've tried!

 

 

 

John

[lovemy51]

If it's a flex pen the word "flex" is one of the best tests!

I can see that. there is nothing like a great "F" written with a nice "flex".

[Niagara Falls]

The final verse of Goethes Faust II:

 

Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis,

das Unzulängliche, hier wirds Ereignis,

das Unbeschreibliche, hier ists getan!

Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan!

 

or, if I have a lot of time and I am unsure about the quality and properties of the nib, I write the "Song of Joy" from Beethoven's 9. symphony...

[Edwaroth]

Daft be thou liar sot,all fleet ahead wile I draw a bead.

[flatline]

 

I like this one--it's one of the toughest tongue twisters I've tried!

 

 

 

John

 

All the double-'e' words make the whole thing really pretty if you're using a nib with nice line variation.

 

--flatline

[carlos.q]

As others have pointed out, I also write the name of the pen, the nib and the ink I'm using for future reference:

 

 

However, sometimes I write down some popular sayings or proverbs in spanish:

 

 

This loosely translated means:

 

For lack of bread, biscuit

and barking dog does not bite

and shrimp that falls asleep

is carried away by the current

 

 

[DaleR]

I always find myself writing one or more of the following:

 

"THESE are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine

"Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far" Theodore Roosevelt

"Once upon a time, in America..."

 

Then I just scribble a lot...

 

Dale

[Freddy]

 

Fred

 

 

"I guess you could say I got trumped by trump." ~ Robert Guillo

[fncll]

My typical page looks like this, though the poem varies depending on what pops into my head at the time...

 

 

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2809/9694161963_b9aa0f473f_z.jpg
Pilot Plumix Testing by ChrisL_AK, on Flickr

 

 

[SharkOnWheels456]

I tend to go with the extremely generic quick brown fox, but I've found myself writing out the lyrics to whatever song is buzzing around in my head and/or playing on my speakers recently. Classical pieces get their full title written out.

[Muncle]

I usually write:

This is a test (bit of computer programming habit from my Dad).

 

Then a description of how the pen or ink feels, any notes about it.

 

Then I write "Egypt" in cursive a few times. It has a nice flow to it, plus lots of opportunities to see if there are problems with skipping and whatnot.

 

Then squigglies and what not. And yes, if it is a flex pen "flex" will show up somewhere.

[pencils+pens]

I usually write:

This is a test

 

... and only a test. If it had been real you would have been instructed to put your head between your knees and kiss your ... good-bye.

 

A bit of humor from the Duck-n-Cover days, circa early 1960s.

[TheGreatRoe]

I have two. Which one I use depends on my mood.

 

If I'm in a playful or lighthearted mood: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

 

Otherwise I go with the phrase I've written on the front page of new notebooks for about 20 years: "Written acrylics and explosions of words adorn these pages, illuminated with, I hope, more than just ink."

[sajiskumar]

"The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog" in both small and capital letters, followed by some hindu chants like "Om Nama Sivaya" or "Hare Krsna", in my local language as well as in English.

[Nate_Emmi]

my signature, "the quickbrown fox.." and tidbits of the last thing I hear on TV or from someone talking.