Class & Individual Handwriting Characteristics

Handwriting is also known as Brainwriting. It is a neuro-muscular task. When the brain and spinal cord coordinates perfectly with the muscles and bones of our hand, a particular letter is written.

If any of them does not coordinate perfectly, we can observe tremors in the strokes. This makes the line quality poor. Handwriting is an art that is learned at an early stage of life. 

Class Characteristics of Handwriting

• Overall Form– It includes the general observed characteristics of the Handwriting, i.e., shape, slant, strokes, and size of the letters. The slant of the letters can be to the right, to the left, straight, or mixed slant. The strokes can be continuous, discontinuous, or no strokes at all. The shape of the letters can be deformed, perfect, or a mix of both. The size of letters can be big, small, or a mix of both.
• Line Features– It includes the speed of writing, pressure applied, letters and words spacing, and the connection of letters. The writing speed can be fast, slow, or intermediate. The speed depends on the length of time required to write. The pressure applied by our fingers while writing can be high, low, or in the mid of both. The high pressure causes indentation. The spacing between letters and words can be consistent or inconsistent. The connection between letters indicates the connecting strokes.
• Margins and Format– The space left while writing from the left and right margins can be consistent or inconsistent. It is clearly visible from a preliminary examination.
• Line Quality– It shows how your Handwriting looks in an overall manner. The appearance of your Handwriting is our line quality. We can examine this through-line flow (the strokes formation, freely written writing, the usual handwriting habit), shakiness (presence or absence of tremors), and the irregularities (written regularly or not). It indicates your writing speed, copied, prolonged or altered writing.
• Words and Letter Spacing– The spacing between the letters and words, i.e. intra-letter and intra-word spacing, can be consistent or inconsistent.
• Size Consistency– It is the ratio of height: width of the letter formed while writing them. It can be big, small, or intermediate. A forger can never copy size consistency. If they try to do, we can see tremors in the strokes.
• Pen Lifts– It is the lifts of the writing instrument while writing on paper. A forged document contains unusual pen lifts, i.e., pen lifts at an unexpected place.
• Connecting Strokes– The strokes present between the letters in order to join them. I might be resent or absent depending upon individual’s writing.
• Letter Complete– The expert checks whether the letters formed are complete or incomplete. It might show the speed of writing as well.
• Cursive and Printed Letters– The expert sees whether the letter formations are cursive, printed, or combined. In cursive, the writing flow is continuous & makes writing fast.
• Pen Pressure– The pressure applied by our finger while writing can be high, low, or in the mid of both. The high pressure causes indentation, which can be in an upward stroke, downward, or on both.
• Slant– It is the direction of letters while writing. The slant of the letters can be to the right, to the left, straight, or mixed slant.
•  Baseline Habit– The writing can be straight on the baseline, down to the baseline, or above the baseline.

Individual Characteristics of Handwriting

No two people have identical Handwriting. Therefore, Handwriting is unique to everyone, just like fingerprints. Many of us keep on writing without thinking much. Our Handwriting reflects our personality. Sometimes two people might have the same formation of letters, but it still varies by size, slant, etc. In the other section, we’ll be discussing the individual characteristics which make our Handwriting unique.

1.  Flourishers and Embellishments– The fancy curls, loops, or any unusual letter formations either at the initial strokes or at the terminals ones.
2. Diacritic Placement– The minute and the prominent habits of writing letters. The dot positions on the letter “i” or the crossbar position on the letter “t”.
3.  Spelling Mistakes and Grammar– Not everyone is perfect with grammar. They make mistakes which is not common to everyone. The errors in the spelling while everyone does not do the writing. It is unique to individual habits.
4. Content– While writing, not everyone is used to add punctuation marks like comma, full stop, colon, semicolon, etc. In fact, not everyone is perfect with grammar. They make mistakes which is not common to everyone. The use of words by the writer is also different cording to the preference.
5. Initial and Terminal Strokes– The beginning and ending strokes of any letter written by an individual can never be identical. These strokes define the personality of an individual. There’s always a difference in the formation of these strokes with different pen pressure and pen lifts.
6. Abbreviations– Many of us have a habit of writing the short forms of some words while writing. The formation of those abbreviations differs from one individual to the other. Example – ‘and’ can be written as ‘&’ or in a different style.
7. Letter Formation– The style of writing different letters varies from person to person. Even if two-person has an identical manner of writing a letter, still a difference may persist in the size, slant, etc.