My Handwriting Sample

[kopio]

Hello All,

 

After reading through many of the handwriting samples here, I finally got up the courage to submit one! For the record, I have only been writing with a FP for about a month. I just got my new Carene a few days ago, and I am still learning it's peculiarities. I would love to hear your comments, especially those of you who read Greek, but even if you don't you can still comment on that section if you'd like. I did have a few skips as I was writing, but for the most part it went fairly well. The first part is at full speed. For the bible verse I slowed down to about half speed. Thanks in advance for your comments!

 

--Matt

[Hans-Peter Ording]

I would like to know the size of the space between the lines. Are the lines 1 cm apart?

 

Regards

Hans-Peter

[PamHB]

I can't comment on your Greek, but the English handwriting is certainly clean and legible. You currently print your English, rather than using cursive handwriting. The print style is functional, but usually slower than cursive.

 

My personal theory is that if you want to improve your handwriting, it's best to look for a style of penmanship that can build on how you currently write, rather than forcing yourself to learn an entirely different style. If you want to practise cursive, I would suggest that you look at some of the links in the pinned discussions for this subforum, and maybe give cursive italics a try. It is close to a print style, so that you don't have to change your entire writing style in order practise and use it. Alternatively, you can look at the thread on architectural handwriting used by draftsmen, and see if you want to introduce some architectural elements to your handwriting.

 

Either way, don't worry about your English handwriting -- others will always be able to read it.

 

P.S. I'm kind of a messy writer myself, so have chosen to work on the cursive italics. It is closest to my current style of handwriting -- after about 45 years of writing, I'm not likely to change easily. I focus on the letters that have some interest (such as the capital letter "F") rather than trying to adopt the entire style.

[Judybug]

Your writing is very legible. I didn't have any trouble reading it. If you want to improve the appearance, you might want to work on having a consistent slant (or consistent lack of slant). Some of your letters are vertical while others are varying degrees of a slant to the right.

 

Enjoy your Carene. It's a great pen. I have one with a med. nib.

 

Judybug

[hardyb]

Print these out and play around with them to see if you like the style:

[kopio]

It's standard college ruled paper. I'm not sure what the width is...lemme see if I can find a ruler.

 

  Hans-Peter Ording said:

I would like to know the size of the space between the lines. Are the lines 1 cm apart?

 

Regards

Hans-Peter

 

[kopio]

Hey Pam,

 

I have thought about looking into a cursive italic. My plain old cursive is rather ugly (and you thought this was bad!) and it doesn't flow very well. I'll check out the aforementioned links and take a look at architectural handwriting too. Thanks for the helpful comments.

--Matt

 

  PamHB said:

I can't comment on your Greek, but the English handwriting is certainly clean and legible. You currently print your English, rather than using cursive handwriting. The print style is functional, but usually slower than cursive.

 

My personal theory is that if you want to improve your handwriting, it's best to look for a style of penmanship that can build on how you currently write, rather than forcing yourself to learn an entirely different style. If you want to practise cursive, I would suggest that you look at some of the links in the pinned discussions for this subforum, and maybe give cursive italics a try. It is close to a print style, so that you don't have to change your entire writing style in order practise and use it. Alternatively, you can look at the thread on architectural handwriting used by draftsmen, and see if you want to introduce some architectural elements to your handwriting.

 

Either way, don't worry about your English handwriting -- others will always be able to read it.

 

P.S. I'm kind of a messy writer myself, so have chosen to work on the cursive italics. It is closest to my current style of handwriting -- after about 45 years of writing, I'm not likely to change easily. I focus on the letters that have some interest (such as the capital letter "F") rather than trying to adopt the entire style.

 

[kopio]

Thanks for the tip! It has always been fairly legible, just never very pretty. I will say that it has started to improve as I've used my FP's. I like to have a little bit of slant, so I will work on all my letters having a little slant.

 

And don't worry, I am thoroughly enjoying my Carene

--Matt

 

  Judybug said:

Your writing is very legible. I didn't have any trouble reading it. If you want to improve the appearance, you might want to work on having a consistent slant (or consistent lack of slant). Some of your letters are vertical while others are varying degrees of a slant to the right.

 

Enjoy your Carene. It's a great pen. I have one with a med. nib.

 

Judybug

 

[PamHB]

  kopio said:

Hey Pam,

 

I have thought about looking into a cursive italic. My plain old cursive is rather ugly (and you thought this was bad!) and it doesn't flow very well.

 

Matt, you're too hard on yourself! Your current style is perfectly acceptable, and has the virtue of being legible. There are many who can't even break that threshold. Beautiful handwriting takes time and is now an art form in itself. The rest of us can be content with having acceptable handwriting for everyday use, and working on something more attractive for when we have time to write more slowly.

 

Is Greek your first or second language? The only reason that I'm curious about it is that I would assume that the character formation of someone's first language likely shapes the character formation of their second language. Anyone out there have any opinions on that?

 

[kopio]

Why thank you for your kindness Pam....I stand corrected

 

Greek is my third language, but it is my second alphabet. I learned German in Highschool, then my undergrad Major was Greek with a minor in Hebrew. I still haven't warmed up to Hebrew all that much, but my written Hebrew is probably just as good as if not better than my Greek. Hebrew has is a lot more angular, not as many curly sweeping letters, which means my hand naturally conforms to it pretty well.

 

I would guess that my handwriting is fairly consistent across languages, but like I said, some forms are more suited to peoples handwriting. I have studies Syriac a litte (very very little) and I'm sure I would really struggle with that, since it is very flowing and swoopy.

 

Just my two cents worth though, I am by no means a morphologist.

 

  PamHB said:

  kopio said:

Hey Pam,

 

I have thought about looking into a cursive italic. My plain old cursive is rather ugly (and you thought this was bad!) and it doesn't flow very well.

 

Matt, you're too hard on yourself! Your current style is perfectly acceptable, and has the virtue of being legible. There are many who can't even break that threshold. Beautiful handwriting takes time and is now an art form in itself. The rest of us can be content with having acceptable handwriting for everyday use, and working on something more attractive for when we have time to write more slowly.

 

Is Greek your first or second language? The only reason that I'm curious about it is that I would assume that the character formation of someone's first language likely shapes the character formation of their second language. Anyone out there have any opinions on that?

 

[PamHB]

Hmm, interesting. Angular alphabets beget angular writing. Or angular writing makes it simpler to learn angular alphabets. Go with what works best for you, and look for stylistic elements that are more angular. Keep your writing consistently perpendicular, and you should end up with something very interesting. My biggest problem with cursive italics is that I'm not angular enough!

[georges zaslavsky]

Interesting penmanship Kopjo I thought you were writing in Russian because the letters are almost the same with some exceptions.

[kopio]

The Greek and Cyrillic alphabets share quite a few letters. Even more in Capital letters.

 

But I can't even come close to reading Russian!

 

--Matt

 

  georges zaslavsky said:

Interesting penmanship Kopjo I thought you were writing in Russian because the letters are almost the same with some exceptions.

 

[Judybug]

  kopio said:

Thanks for the tip! It has always been fairly legible, just never very pretty. I will say that it has started to improve as I've used my FP's. I like to have a little bit of slant, so I will work on all my letters having a little slant.

 

And don't worry, I am thoroughly enjoying my Carene

--Matt

 

  Judybug said:

Your writing is very legible. I didn't have any trouble reading it. If you want to improve the appearance, you might want to work on having a consistent slant (or consistent lack of slant). Some of your letters are vertical while others are varying degrees of a slant to the right.

 

Enjoy your Carene. It's a great pen. I have one with a med. nib.

 

Judybug

 

Matt - I've had some problems keeping my handwriting slant consistent since I'm having to write with my left hand due to arthritis in my right thumb. I like a little slant to the right, but had trouble keeping the SAME consistency. I decided to give up on the slant and write my letters consistently straight up and down. I practiced on grid paper to help me stay vertical. I got some cheap 3x5 grid cards at Office Depot and used them for all my lists and notes. After about a month or so of perfecting this consistently vertical hand, I decided to try a little slant to the right again. Voila! I could keep a consistent slant when I couldn't before training myself by writing vertically on grid paper. I have no idea why this worked for me. Just thought I'd share this experience - for whatever it's worth.

 

Judybug