Italic Cursive Lower Case Z

[jabberwock11]

I have been working with my italic cursive handwriting and have discovered an odd little issue. I can not find a convincing lower case "z" that works well in the middle of letters. The standard z does not work at all with connectors and looks odd in the middle of otherwise flowing italic letters. The Palmer cursive z works with the flow, but looks completely out of place. Any words with double Zs are even worse (frizz, pizza, etc.). I need something else.

 

Obviously this is not a frequently occurring problem, but you try to write lizard, pizza, or citizen in italic cursive without it looking odd. Any help that could be provided would be greatly appreciated.

[T4TEXAS]

Can you show us a few examples of how you are writing it in words.

[brunico]

I suspect you are coming from what North Americans call cursive. Cursive italic is a different beast altogether: there's no need for every letter to be joined in every instance and, with some letter combinations, to do so could undermine the integrity of the script.

 

Go on, give it some sprezzatura!

[jabberwock11]

I am writing in italic cursive, not standard Palmer style cursive. I realize that not all of the letters need to be, or even should be joined; however, joined or not, the Zs do not flow well or look correct with the style of italic cursive that I am working on.

 

My italic has a long way to go, but I am working diligently to improve, a nice z will help.

 

 

[brunico]

Your italic z looks miles better, and it's much more readable. You are right that the Palmer z doesn't fit: Palmer is a completely different approach to letterforms. As I said, I suspect you are used to writing in Palmer, because of what you're expecting. I've written in a roughly cursive italic way ever since I had my first school exercise book, so a z on its own looks completely normal to me.

 

Italic can flow, by the way, even if no letters at all are joined up: the flow is in the rhythm of the letters, the regularity of strokes and the consideration of whitespace. Except in lizard, you are leaving too much of a gap before the z, and it's this that's breaking the word apart, not the absence of a connector.

Edited December 13, 2015 by brunico

[jabberwock11]

You're probably right that being raised with Palmer has influenced my impressions of how letters should look, but aesthetics are what they are. Sometimes you just don't like the way some forms of some letters look.

 

I think a big part of the problem is that I have to interrupt my tempo in order to write a standard italic Z. If I try to keep pace the Z ends up a mess. I do also have some issues with spacing the Z properly, which probably adds to my dislike of the look. In any event, it just doesn't work well for me and while I can work on it, I would rather find a form of Z that I like more.

 

I know that it is asking a lot for a letter that pops up infrequently at best, but this little Z is really bugging me. I kind of like the Z in the image below, but I dunno if I will be able to properly incorporate that form without interrupting my tempo just as much as the standard italic Z. I may just have to suck it up and learn to like the Z as it is...

 

http://i.stack.imgur.com/QZjV6.png

Edited December 13, 2015 by jabberwock11

[brunico]

That swash-like z in your sample of humanist type can lead to overlapping strokes and would take some skill to pull off if you had to write zz in the middle of a word, or zig on its own. But even the straightforward italic z usually has a tilde-like inflection to both horizontal strokes, which may help you integrate the letter. If I write pizzicato, my first i doesn't join to the first z, but the inflection in the second z makes an easy join to the second i. Using the predominant form of British English (which prefers -ise to -ize) also helps.

 

Anyway, here's an end z to end all zeds (or zees), by the sixteenth-century master Bernardino Cataneo.

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by brunico

[jabberwock11]

My capital Z has the little bit of wave, but I never considered incorporating it into the lower case. It would look a lot like a standard Foundational minuscule Z, but it might work. I agree that the Z from my example would require some skill to write well, which is why I haven't tried it yet...my skills are pretty marginal at this point. It doesn't help that I'm naturally left handed, but write with my right hand (thanks to my elementary school teachers).

 

That ending Z is certainly interesting. The descending stroke looks a lot like the stroke that I use on my capital Q, maybe I'll give it a try.

[griz8791]

Now imagine having a "z" in your name and having a job that requires signing 40 to 50 public documents a day.

[KellyMcJ]

This is how I do lowercase z:

 

 

http://i1374.photobucket.com/albums/ag402/klmcjilton/IMG_20160122_222004-1_zpsdzdscfbh.jpg

[Misfit]

I have 2 "z" in my last name!

[pmhudepo]

For cursive italic, I really like the work of Lloyd Reynolds. Here's a screenshot from lesson 11:

 

 

You can find his lessons on YouTube:

[pmhudepo]

Note that his 'z' is packed pretty tight between the other letters: horizontally, the exit from the 'a' overlaps with the entry of the 'z' (i.e., they are directly above each other). This is even more pronounced with the 'z' and 'y'. Perhaps 'lazy' is a great example; I'm sure there may be other letter combinations that are less elegant.

[GClef]

http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m496/gclef1114/Tutuguans/6B8B8BB1-E8B1-4B74-9603-40BEC1A73677_7.jpg

[ThreadorYarn]

I write my z's the same way, although I cross them when I'm printing (otherwise they look like the number 2). I don't connect the z to the following letter. I