Script size

[Darryl Foster]

Hello. I've been reading about graphology and am confused as to whether I have small or medium handwriting. The consensus to be that anything between 1.5 and 2.5mm is small. The paper I'm using has 8mm ruling. 

I attach a sample...thank you. 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Darryl Foster
Correction.

[OCArt]

I'd say you have nice handwriting and IMHO there is no reason to categorize it further than that.

[Darryl Foster]

I see your point. I suppose I'm reading too much into graphology.  

[Aether]

Nice handwriting, as noticed by OCArt.   Script size is just a measure rather than a judgement.

[txomsy]

Not to mention that graphology is a pseudoscience. Any reading into it (other than to satisfy curiosity about superstition) is already too much.

 

Just think of this: any average amateur calligrapher can produce several different scripts, and will practice in several different sizes. Doe it mean they are all crazy fools with multiple personality disorder?

 

If you are going to buy into that, then I have a couple of bargain cheap bridges to sell you, one in S. Francisco and the other in London (depending on which side of the pond you are).

[Darryl Foster]

I've never believed in graphology : I came to this conclusion due to its silly "logic" of associating character to script style. Introverts are supposed to have small script; "well balanced" people, medium script; and extroverts, large script. "Realistic" people write upright ; dreamers have either backward or forward slanting script.

 

I regard it as a left-over from the nineteenth century : it should have been thrown away with phrenology and palmistry!

 

The reason I posted my article /query was to gain some external opinion on what constitutes small script. I usually alter my script size and writing pace to suit whatever nib grade I'm using. 

 

That said, I'm pleased to know that I am not alone in regarding graphology as nonsense. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Darryl Foster
Correction

[txomsy]

Well, I do not think that there is a standard definition of what is tiny/small/medium/large/oversize writing, as it mostly depends on circumstances and, as you well said, on the instrument used.

 

Personally I would use as reference whatever definitions you yourself use to characterized printed letters in a book. Which is also highly subjective.

 

Oh, and I have reconsidered my earlier affirmation: there is another reason to learn graphology. Gaming the system. If you want to fool a believer and know their beliefs, then you may adapt your behavior to match the expectations you want to induce in them. Whether that's ethically adequate is open for discussion and likely more complex than able to treat here.

[Darryl Foster]

Apt piece of psychology,  there.

[arcfide]

There *are* some recognized standard sizes of writing based on traditional schools of penmanship. These days, I'd say that tends to hold less weight because almost no one that I know of uses anything close to those styles. One interesting objective measure I could think of applying would be to standardize on an ink, script, and paper, as well as a set of nibs of different sizes. Then, identify at what point writing becomes too small to be faithfully written with a given nib size (loss of counter spacing, shape fidelity, etc.), and consider those the break points for various sizes of writing, anchored in that range's "medium" size. I personally suspect that this measure would tend to rater scripts a tad bit larger than they might be in common usage if sampled widely, though. 

 

Now, as to my personal assessment of your writing, when I first saw it, I didn't immediately think of it as small. I probably would have said more on the side of medium, myself. 

[Darryl Foster]

Regarding my script size: yes I agree with your estimate of my script size being medium. That said,  I do tend to alter it depending on the nib grade I'm using.  The strange thing is I do so automatically.