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Guidlines For Palmer Script


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I intend to practice and improve my handwriting skills by using the Palmer Method.

I came across this site that gives me the freedom to set my own lines.

My question is, what is the recommended setting for the Palmer method?

I couldn't find any suggestions in the Palmer booklet which I have downloaded as pdf.

Anyone willing to give me any advice on this?

 

edit

This one offers lining too.

Edited by spot

"To remember what needs to be remembered is the secret of success" Nisargadatta Maharaj

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The Palmer method generally follows the guidelines for Spencerian (and I believe there are a number of Spencerian guides floating around on the forum as well as on IAMPETH). But if you want to make your own, you will want to set your angle at about 38 degrees from vertical. Lines for ascenders and descenders are twice as wide (tall) as the regular "x height." The rest is up to you. Since pointed pens don't really have nib widths, I would just set this at 1mm. Because my handwriting is medium to smallish, I would set my x height at about 2mm or 2.5mm. Hope that helps!

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Is this reasonable?

Somehow it doesn't look ok. If I would write the letter 'b' where would it be placed and where would the upperstroke of 'b' end?

 

setting:

angle: 38

nib with: 1mm

x height: 4mm

ascender height: 8mm

descender height: 8mm

capital line: 3mm

"To remember what needs to be remembered is the secret of success" Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Here's what I use for Spencerian and business script - x-height 3 mm. It's similar to what I found in Spencer's "Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship".

It's very light blue lines to print directly on the writing paper - might look empty on first sight on some monitors B)

Spencerian_3mm.pdf

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Here's what I use for Spencerian and business script - x-height 3 mm. It's similar to what I found in Spencer's "Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship".

It's very light blue lines to print directly on the writing paper - might look empty on first sight on some monitors B)

Spencerian_3mm.pdf

 

Thanks and the light colour is what I prefer to write on.

I see that you have set the X width almost 3 times wider than its height, any reason for this? And when writing the letters, where do you position them, in the middle or to the left close to the vertical line?

 

My problem now is how the actual letters come to look like as far as the positioning and the dimensions are concerned, when they have been put on the guidelines.

 

I would really wish someone wrote a sample of the Palmer handwriting on a guidesheet and put it here so I could see it clearly, because an empty guide sheet is confusing to me :\

"To remember what needs to be remembered is the secret of success" Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Achim's guide is good. In traditional Palmer and Spencerian, ascenders are 3 times as tall as the x height. So if your letter "a" is 2mm tall, then the letter "h" would be 6mm tall. The way that calligraphy program expects you to input the lines for ascenders and descenders is confusing, so let me spell it out to be clear:

 

Spacing between verticals -- I like 10 nib widths here, but anything should work.

Angle -- 38 degrees

Nib Width -- 1mm

Ascender Height -- 0 (This is the amount *above* a capital letter. But caps and ascenders are the same height in Palmer).

Capital Line -- 4

x-height -- 2

Descender Height - 4

White space -- 4

 

You could change x-height to 3 and caps and descenders to 6 if you wanted to write larger. Personally I think that 4mm x-height is much too large for Palmer, 2mm seems about right for writing, and 3mm might be good for practice.

 

I posted files for both the 3mm and 2mm guidelines.

 

As far as how to use the guides, I think you are right that a picture is very helpful. I don't have one at hand, so please bear with my description. Each letter without ascenders and descenders fits within the x-height lines. A letter like "h" will go up to the very top line, and a letter like "g" will descend to the bottom line. The downstrokes of the h and g should line up to be either on or parallel to the angle lines of 38 degrees.

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Thanks! I appreciatie all the help and got it working now.

"To remember what needs to be remembered is the secret of success" Nisargadatta Maharaj

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I see that you have set the X width almost 3 times wider than its height, any reason for this? And when writing the letters, where do you position them, in the middle or to the left close to the vertical line?

 

The angled vertical lines are just to have a reference for the slant - their distance is a matter of taste and you should not try to place letters of a word according to them. But if you write single letters, e.g. "f"s, in the beginning it might help to write them directly on a slant line.

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I see that you have set the X width almost 3 times wider than its height, any reason for this? And when writing the letters, where do you position them, in the middle or to the left close to the vertical line?

 

The angled vertical lines are just to have a reference for the slant - their distance is a matter of taste and you should not try to place letters of a word according to them. But if you write single letters, e.g. "f"s, in the beginning it might help to write them directly on a slant line.

Would you mind giving an example of using the vertical lines as the reference of the slant.

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Would you mind giving an example of using the vertical lines as the reference of the slant.

 

Sorry, but I don't understand the question - the lines that are not horizontal are at the slant angle on my guide sheet. But maybe my last post wasn't really clear since I'm not a native speaker of English - my apologies! I just tried to say that the distance between the slant lines is not supposed to be related to the width of letters or distance between letters or words.

 

In some guide sheets there's only one slant line at the beginning of the line, but I like some more, because otherwise I might start out at 52° and at the end of the line I'm at 45° (like in my usual handwriting).

Edited by Achim
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Super helpfull achim, thanks.

 

Do you do the ds and ts to the second hight and the rest of the loop letters to the third.

And the p and r also to the second?

Edited by Lince
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Super helpfull achim, thanks.

 

Do you do the ds and ts to the second hight and the rest of the loop letters to the third.

And the p and r also to the second?

 

Yes, that's exactly how the guidelines are supposed to be used. But the "r" usually doesn't go up quite to the second line, but just halfway to it.

 

Best, Achim.

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  • 5 years later...

I am also a fan of the Palmer method, as it is very close to the cursive I was taught 40 years ago. I've recently begun to practice the letter shapes, which I deviated from over the years, and also to correct some errors that had crept in. A question: it is not necessary to use an italic or stub nib in Palmer, is it? I heard broad or medium were better choices for thiamine lettering style. I have had mixed results using my first stub pen, the Pilot Parallel 1.5mm, to produce Palmer. Any thoughts?

Edited by Retrouser
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@Retrouser,

 

I write Palmerish with anything; ball tip FP, stub FP, ball pen, pencil.

 

In fact I rather like using a F or EF nib. For learning, the F or EF nib shows you EXACTLY, the path of the nib. Whereas with a M or B nib, the exact path of the nib could be hidden under that wide ink line, and mistakes can be hidden.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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Palmer is not a broad edge pen script. Especially when learning it, I would not use a pen that gives line thickness variation as the result of line direction.

~ Alexander

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Palmer is not a broad edge pen script. Especially when learning it, I would not use a pen that gives line thickness variation as the result of line direction.

Thanks - I will stick to something other than stubs. Perhaps the F as @ac12 suggests.

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Note that this also depends on the country of origin. German F and Japanese F are two different things. I have a Lamy F which I would personally not recommend, as it will certainly hide your mistakes.

 

As a dip pen user I'm toying with the idea of getting a Platinum or Pilot desk pen, EF nib, for my everyday penmanship. These might be of interest to you too.

 

Also, perhaps get something with a round section. Triangular ones may fit your grip now, but if you're getting serious about it, your grip might change to the classic 'knuckles up' one. Round sections support both grips.

 

HTH.

 

 

 

 

Edit: to -> too

Edited by Rednaxela

~ Alexander

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