Does Anybody Agree That Cursive Italic Looks Better Than Conventional Cursive?

[conman1975]

[bobje]

This is a great question. From a clarity and readability point of view, I agree with you. For whatever reason, copperplate/roundhand seem perceived as more elegant, formal, upscale, but I'm not exactly certain why. I don't think they are more readable.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I don't disagree, although it depends a lot on the individual writer and reader. Certainly I think that the loops of conventional cursive can have a certain type of elegance that Italic lacks, but each has its own character, and can be pleasing to the eye. And both can be easy to read for someone who is used to them.

 

If instead of asking which looks better, you had put it as "which is easier for a person not familiar with cursive to read?" then Italic wins. I have no intention of trying to learn to write it at this point, but it does seem like a very practical script.

[knarflj]

it depends a lot on the individual writer and reader....

 

 

This.

 

I find some people's "conventional cursive" (roundhand/Spencerian/Palmer and the business hands derived from them) much easier to read than other people's cursive italic, and vice-versa. I usually find rounder versions of any of them easier to read than those that follow official models: rounder letters don't look as pretty when you look at a whole page, but for actually reading the content, they're easier on the eyes. Or at least, easier on my eyes. Too many or overly large loops can detract from the legibility of a business hand, true; but Italic hands (at least in my observation) often seem to go all spiky and angular when written at speed, which makes them (for me) equally hard to read and even less attractive than business hand.

 

Personally, I can write a highly legible business hand a lot faster and keep writing it a lot longer than italic - but then, I learned the former in grade school (which was a very long time ago!), and have not been working on italic long. Perhaps it will even out some day.

 

Jenny

[Rednaxela]

When done well, both scripts can be absolutely gorgeous.

[Ergative]

What is better? Faster, as you seem to imply in the image? Clearer? More elegant? More uniformly legible to everyone? More legible to those who prefer it, compared to the legibility of its competitor to those people who prefer the competitor? Until we can all agree on what "better" means, there will be many scripts, many preferences, and the world of handwriting will be richer and better* for it.

 

*Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Inky.Fingers]

[Newjelan]

As someone who never learnt cursive (we learnt "ball and stick with joins at my school in Australia in the 1970s), I find it fussy and difficult to read. I have recently taught myself to write in Italic Cursive; I love how it looks and find it easy to read.

[Ted F]

InkyFingers: Both of your examples are excellent and nice to look at; however, I like your conventional cursive better because, for me, I feel it's more pleasing to the eye and easier to read.

[KateGladstone]

I definitely agree that it is!

There is some research (citations available on request) showing that the fastest and clearest handwriters tend to use certain formations and joining practices which are not characteristic of conventional cursive but which happen to resemble the basics of italic (though the researchers did not mention italic, and may have been unaware of it)..

 

By the way, the "Fast, clear script" sample you showed is a big of my handwriting, from my site. Thanks for finding and using it!

 

;-)

[ac12]

You guys just don't get it.

When you say X looks better than Y, it leaves too much open to personal interpretation.

I personally prefer cursive to italic. And that is a personal choice. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

As for your clarity question, that is only in the post, not the title.

I would go for ITALIC or plain block printing, not ANY of the cursives, including your cursive italic.

[Inkquest]

For speed combined with legibility of my own writing, cursive italic wins the 'better' vote hands down. The difference certainly boils down to practice. I didn't choose the style, or give a hoot about writing in school, and accordingly didn't practice much at all. Apathy was the fatal ingredient for legible writing later on when it began to matter. I did choose AND practice cursive italic out of a desire to improve -- all the difference in the world, imo. My old illegible style was so ingrained that even when I chose to practice, there was little improvement. However, like InkyFingers above, my 'standard' script definitely improved after learning and practicing the new style. I simply no longer have the desire bother with whatever that former cursive style was. So, apathy kills the skewl larnin' style yet again.