Fast, Neat Handwriting

[Yaniel]

I've always had borderline illegible print handwriting. Since starting with FPs, I've been practicing cursive which I haven't used since the 80's. Slowly but surely it's becoming more legible, but what I really want is a fast, legible, nice handwriting style. From everything I've read, that seems to be italics. I told myself to become proficient in cursive before moving on to italics, but is this smart or am I just wasting time since my ultimate goal is italics? I guess my question is, will a good knowledge of cursive help me in italics?

 

Thanks

Edited September 28, 2010 by Yaniel

[lws]

I've always had borderline illegible print handwriting. Since starting with FPs, I've been practicing cursive which I haven't used since the 80's. Slowly but surely it's becoming more legible, but what I really want is a fast, legible, nice handwriting style. From everything I've read, that seems to be italics. I told myself to become proficient in cursive before moving on to italics, but is this smart or am I just wasting time since my ultimate goal is italics? I guess my question is, will a good knowledge of cursive help me in italics?

 

Thanks

 

 

Cursive is the devil - anything but perfectly executed cursive is nigh-illegible.

 

- L.

 

 

 

[WendyNC]

I won't say that you're wasting your time with the cursive, but the italic letter forms do tend to be more readable to most people. Once you get the hang of them, certain joins seem to come naturally, so you can have the best of both worlds.

[GooseDeluxe]

I sorry if this seems very silly. But after 6th grade when cursive wasn't required anymore, I switched to print and basically lost the knack of writing in cursive. Recently, after getting a fountain pen, I started practicing my cursive on scraps of paper. It still looks kind of weird to me.

 

Basically my question is, what is italic handwriting? Is it just print with a slant? Are the letters joined? I tried googling images of italic handwriting and got a whole variety of writing samples. @_@ I feel kind of lost but would like to learn about this other option to cursive.

 

Could someone post a picture of a representative sample of italic lettering? One with the alphabet written out in uppercase and lowercase would be very much appreciated.

[WendyNC]

We need member caliken for this job, but it's 1:20 am in his world. Perhaps one of us will remember to bump this at a time he might see it. BrownPaperBird, you might like to send him a PM asking him to do those samples. In the meantime, I'd encourage you to look for his posts as he has various samples here already (although not the complete alphabets, as far as I know).

[countrydirt]

I looked at the Chancery Italic thread pinned to the top of this section of the board. I started working from there. It is amazing how legible my writing has become and the speed of my writing is almost up to my horrible previous cursive scrawl. It has almost became an italic cursive. This board is a good place to start. Like you, I had not used cursive for years because it just looked wrong. The letterforms of italic lend themselves well to a joined up italic, while still retaining legibility.

[watch_art]

would this be italic? or cursive italic? i write like this all the time and it's fairly quick, and i think, legible.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/5025692167_95075daa95_b.jpg

[Ann Finley]

watch_art, your handwriting is cursive penmanship, but not what's known as cursive italic or italic--even though it has a slant! Look at the various links pinned at the top of the forum and I think you will begin to get an idea of what's called italic. Also, you can search the forum for other scripts taught in schools, such as Palmer & D'Nealian. I'm guessing that what you learned in school was based on one similar to these. And, yes, your writing is quite legible. Keep on writing and drawing.

 

Best, Ann

[watch_art]

I remember hearing D'Nealian a lot. Probably that... cool.

[nunez]

Good question; related to one I asked earlier this year about 'real world handwriting'.

 

The general consensus seems to be that some form of italic has the best ROI, but I don't think I got any hard data (maybe there isn't any). Is print/italic really faster than cursive? Or are most practitioners better in italics because that's what they practice?

 

There had to be a reason to develop the cursive scripts, and I assume it was a practical one. On the surface it seems the round, joined up letters should be more 'fluid' and easier to write at speed than print/italics.

 

Anyone have any data?

 

Regards,

- Steve

Edited September 28, 2010 by nunez

[handwriter]

Cursive is intended to be written without lifting the pen, that is, "drawing" the entire word from beginning to end. To do that, each letter is connected to the next, and knowing how to draw those connectors is part of cursive writting. The fact that letters are joined and one does not need to lift the pen is what makes cursive faster. At the same time, many people, like Watch_art and myself, find easier not to connect all the letters, and to lift the pen now and then; so the result is some kind of "real world cursive". As for italic handwriting, I've read here in FPN that some practitioners seem to write very quick, but I haven't tried myself.

See this for a sample of how italic handwritting looks like: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/303-italic-handwriting-with-regular-fountain-pens/

[Paladin]

I looked at the Chancery Italic thread pinned to the top of this section of the board. I started working from there. It is amazing how legible my writing has become and the speed of my writing is almost up to my horrible previous cursive scrawl. It has almost became an italic cursive. This board is a good place to start. Like you, I had not used cursive for years because it just looked wrong. The letterforms of italic lend themselves well to a joined up italic, while still retaining legibility.

 

Can relate completely. I now use Italic exclusively and my handwriting is legible. It's a big improvement. Just take consistent practice. 10 mins a day.

[fozzy_d]

my writing is quite schizophrenic, and my "fast-neat" handwriting is somewhere between cursive and print. i can't do full italics/cursive unless i hold a pen and mentally command my hand to write in such a way. but i guess with practice, one can develop the best balance

 

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad17/thefozzybook/fountain%20pens/NOTEBOOK_-9281825-0001.jpg

[watch_art]

what's feminine about the bottom sample? very legible. i think the middle and bottom are much more legible than the print.

[chunli]

my writing is quite schizophrenic, and my "fast-neat" handwriting is somewhere between cursive and print. i can't do full italics/cursive unless i hold a pen and mentally command my hand to write in such a way. but i guess with practice, one can develop the best balance

 

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad17/thefozzybook/fountain%20pens/NOTEBOOK_-9281825-0001.jpg

 

just by your penmanship, i knew you are from the philippines. i write very similiar too.

[nxn96]

I think a lot of people who are trying to improve their cursive handwriting (quality and speed) are either using unlined paper, which gives them no "restraint", or very tightly lined paper, like something on a 4x6 index card, which causes a "smash effect". My suggestion would be to buy a wide-ruled notebook and use that as your notebook for a while. Whether you use cursive, Italic, anything, the wider space but still within rules will likely give you a better result.

[fozzy_d]

i think the middle and bottom are much more legible than the print.

 

I also prefer the script-quasi-print writing, it's so much easier and yes at times it is more legible. Somehow though people still can't decipher it, especially if i scribble reminders and to-do's on post-its. perhaps they get too loopy...

 

 

 

just by your penmanship, i knew you are from the philippines. i write very similiar too.

 

haha! i guess it's how our schools were so strict with handwriting.

[wallylynn]

I guess my question is, will a good knowledge of cursive help me in italics?

They're both very different. What's your goal?

For speed and legibility - I say go with italic.

For flow, style, "prettiness" - I say regular looped cursive.

what is italic handwriting?

I asked that very question 2 months ago.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/163461-what-is-italic/

There's lots of info around the end July / through Aug 2010.

 

What I got from those threads is that italic has much to do with the angles within the letters, like the chancery italics in the sticky topic, that triangular, wedge shape. Cursive italic is mostly semi-joined, usually not fully joined.

 

Look for the posts by KateGladstone and Caliken. They're the resident experts.

 

Is print/italic really faster than cursive? Or are most practitioners better in italics because that's what they practice?

 

There had to be a reason to develop the cursive scripts, and I assume it was a practical one. On the surface it seems the round, joined up letters should be more 'fluid' and easier to write at speed than print/italics.

 

My own experience. Learned print and D'Nealian cursive in school. Fast forward many years and my main writing evolved into an italic style, mostly print, but occasional joins. Printing was faster than cursive. Occasional joins faster than fully lifting the pen. Changing direction easier and faster than clean smooth loops. My "h" often looks like a joined "l" and "i" instead of the traditional giraffe. Lots of joins are extraneous and take up time. Why write an upstroke when it's not necessary? Books are printed, lots of cursive letters just look funny compared to that.

 

As for data, I think the winners for speed in the handwriting contests were rarely looped cursive.

 

I don't remember the history (look for posts by kate and caliken). I think looped cursive stems from when quills were the norm. It was cleaner and easier to draw a monoline than risk lots of blobs from constantly lifting and placing the point down.

[KateGladstone]

In my experience and observation, acquiring a good looped cursive is much harder for "printers" than acquiring an equally good Italic -- and most "printers" or other people who acquire Italic find that Italic makes it easier to go on and add a looped cursive style to their repertoire if they then wish to do so.

 

A good knowledge of looped cursive may or may not help with Italic -- this varies very much from writer to writer.

Edited September 30, 2010 by KateGladstone

[lws]

my writing is quite schizophrenic, and my "fast-neat" handwriting is somewhere between cursive and print. i can't do full italics/cursive unless i hold a pen and mentally command my hand to write in such a way. but i guess with practice, one can develop the best balance

 

http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad17/thefozzybook/fountain%20pens/NOTEBOOK_-9281825-0001.jpg

 

You have very good handwriting. Congrats!

 

- Lewis.