Hi everyone! I am new to fountain pens and just got into all this recently. My first purchase was a Lamy Al-Star. The guy at the shop told me to start with something cheap and then move on up. Well immediately after getting home I started itching to get another one. These things write so well and it's not like the myths I have heard about difficult writing. I just ordered a Rotring Initial because I heard they are leakproof on planes and that sounds like a great feature.
My main interest in fountain pens began with my handwriting. It is legible, but very bad looking. It looks like kid's handwriting or "chicken scratch". I heard that fountain pens may help to improve handwriting. Either way, I like these pens a lot. Does anyone have any tips for improving my handwriting. I have read that cursive is out of date now and italic is in. What is a good way to learn this form or just fix my bad handwriting? Also, if I write using all capital letters (Not all same size...actual capitals such as first letter of name are written bigger) my handwriting looks much better...but is this style looked down upon? Sorry for asking so many questions all at once, but I'm very curious about all this. Thank you for any help you could offer.

Hi and welcome to the forum. I also have questionable handwriting (lefty) but it is easy to change your style if you practice. I bought a calligraphy book and actually wrote one letter, carefully copying a font out of the book. I know I was successful because not only did I admire my work but the person on the receiving end also was quite impressed. The only problem is having the leisure time (and energy) to devote to this pursuit.

If I had to wait until I had the time to carefully copy fonts, my friends on the network would have to wait six months before they heard from me.

I did have one person who wrote to me and couldn't wait to see my handwriting. When she saw my lefty scrawl she informed me that she keeps in touch with people by cell phone so she wouldn't be writing to me in the future! This provided me with a good laugh because why bother indicating you'd like to write to others here if you only use a cell phone to keep in touch? No matter, there are many others who are delightful to keep in touch with!

If you are serious about your handwriting, buy a nice calligraphy book (Amazon.com, or go to a local Barnes and Noble and check out the books, etc.)

Enjoy your stay here but be warned, if you hang around long enough you will have pens, pens, pens and no money!

Hi and welcome to FPN! Check out the Penmanship forum. There's lots of discussion there about improving handwriting. About all capital letters ------ I have a computer font [can't think of the name of it] that is all caps, but uses larger caps at the beginning of sentences, proper names, etc. - anytime you use the "shift " key. I like the looks of it and don't see anything wrong with handwriting this way if that's what you like.

Someone posted an interesting topic recently about writing in all caps with a picture showing how Morse Code operators were taught to write in all caps. I just did a search for it and can't find it. I thought it was in the Penmanship forum, but maybe it was Chatter.

Playpen - do you remember seeing the post about the Morse Code alphabet?

Judybug

Welcome to FPN. Wow, buy one pen and then immediately start on acquiring another. You've caught the bug and there is no cure.

Judybug, I can't find it either

Found it! It's under The Write Stuff and was posted on February 15.

Oh, good! I'm glad you found it because I wanted to go back and look at it.

Judybug

Welcome to FPN!

Thanks for the welcome everyone and also for the tips!

Hi welcome aboard the FPN express. You will find that like Lay's Potato Chips; one is never enough. Nor is a dozen, or two dozen.

Welcome to the FPN! One of my first pens, not so long ago, was a Lamy Safari.

There's a thread posted in the Penmanship section that has a lot of good books on improving your handwriting. A perennial favorite is Write Now!, which is in copybook format and is a nice and unintimidating way to learn italic. Also excellent, if a little bossy, is Fred Eager's The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting. It's out of print, but easily located. He distinguishes between an italic calligraphy hand and a more everyday cursive italic style, teaches both, and his drills and exemplars are good.

Lots of people I've met use all caps. The architects and engineers use a particularly attractive style of this printing!

Welcome to the FPN! No matter what brought you here, you will likely find yourself delving into different (and more) pens, exotic inks, paper, and who knows what before you (or the pocketbook) know what hit you! Have fun!