For Those Trying To Write Straight, With Unlined Paper

[SwipedFromTruman]

I've recently started using unlined stationery when writing correspondence and my initial attempts proved oddly rounded. My handwriting is decent without being flowery, but I learned handwriting from engineers and my drafting classes, so the firm, all-business, boring handwriting is sort of ingrained into me at this point. What I didn't realize was how difficult it was for me to keep my sentences to maintain a straight line across the page.

 

After a brief sojourn through the pages of this forum, I discovered some helpful tricks that are all well documented, but rather than dig up and bump a 10-year-old thread, I figured I'd just add my own additions here.

 

I currently use a thin clear ruler to keep my lines running straight on paper that isn't as conducive to other tips/tricks discussed elsewhere at FPN.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Woodworking-Scrapbooking-Carpentry-Projects/dp/B07SRJJKLG/ref=sr_1_55?keywords=clear+ruler+thin&qid=1568742096&s=gateway&sr=8-55

 

It does the job quite well without distracting me too much and my handwriting doesn't suffer like it does when I use one of the thicker straight-edges on my desk.

 

Another item that hearkens back to my days of manual drafting is the beloved T-Square. I simply line up my edge, slide it up and down and go. My writing is as perfect as it's going to get and I don't have to worry about holding the ruler in place to maintain my line-height.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Westcott-12-30cm-Junior-T-Square/dp/B001E65WAW/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=t+square+clear&qid=1568742149&s=gateway&sr=8-1

 

Both products work quite well for me and I figured it'd be of some use to others. So here it is.

[bobje]

Another option is a shitajiki. With white or light-colored papers, the underlying lines usually show throw. On thick paper, or dark-colored paper, it does not work.

 

https://www.jetpens.com/Sun-Star-Grid-Shitajiki-Writing-Board-A4/pd/13000

[pararis]

I have learned to keep my field of view narrowed to include the top of the page -- and my writing line follows along.

[pen lady]

My old Basildon Bond letter-writing pad has a heavily lined sheet of paper you place under the page you're writing on to use as a guide. Is this called a''shitajiki''? Who knew?

[pitonyak]

Somewhere on my crowded desk I have a hand written article that was then copied and given to me about how to create a ruled sheet to place under the paper on which you are writing. historically, I have always just placed a lined sheet under my not lined sheet.

 

The general idea is:

 

1. Write some text how you want to space it; maybe ten lines of text.
2. Measure with a ruler so you know how many lines per inch you want to write.
3. Now you can make your own lines with a ruler and use that under your sheet.

But wait, there is more....

 

Rather than marking only the baselines, he suggested marking out the "x" area. This is the space used by the lowercase letter x and then shading that. Then, while writing, you not only have your base line marked, but, you know where to put the top and bottom of normal lower case letters.

 

This is similar to the guide sheets used by calligraphers I suppose.

 

I actually wrote a macro to do this. I then decided to make it generic and clean it up, but I never finished that part. It does work, but, you need to manually set the parameters and then run the macro. Not user friendly if you do not like writing macros, but, it seems to work well and it is much faster than drawing this out by hand.

 

Side note: I use Linux, so I use LibreOffice, not MS Office and these particular macros will not run in MS Office; not that anyone probably cares.

[Brianm_14]

Another dodge is to put lined paper under the unlined sheet, and place it all on an inexpensive LED lightbox. Now that these are very affordably-priced on Amazon and long-lived, they help a lot even with heavier sheets of blank paper.

[ParramattaPaul]

 

Another dodge is to put lined paper under the unlined sheet, and place it all on an inexpensive LED lightbox. Now that these are very affordably-priced on Amazon and long-lived, they help a lot even with heavier sheets of blank paper.[/quote

 

The oldsters amongst us will remember that back in the day of surface mail at reasonable postage rates and much more expensive air mail, we had an abundance of 'onion skin' letter writing paper. It was very thin and unlined. It came in covered pads with a lined blotting sheet as the first page.

 

The blotting sheet worked well as long as the page one was writing on was still attached. Otherwise, everything shifted and lines went everywhere.

[inkstainedruth]

All good ideas here.

@ pitonyak -- Yes, this is how I learned calligraphy -- ruling lines for the x height as well as for ascenders and descenders (to calculate the x height and the ascender/descender end points, you mark a piece of scrap paper with a grid of boxes (alternating them so they're easy to see) with the width of the pen you're using for the hand you're going to be using. Then mark tick marks along the edge of your paper or a vertical margin line, and use a t-square to mark your horizontal lines.

@ Brianm_14 -- I made my own template for college ruled lines by measuring the space between them, then creating the form using the line ruling function in iPages, with the ruler function to get the spacing more or less correct in the template. I keep the template file on my computer and can print it off as needed. I should see if there is some way I can print onto a heavy duty plastic sheet for long-term use, but in the meantime, if the current template gets crinkly, it becomes scrap paper and I write on the back side of the page (stuff like packing lists or shopping lists, or directions to places I need to go); that paper then goes, later on, into a bag to go to the recycling bin by the elementary school.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Brianm_14]

This is always a resourceful group. One can count on FPN for that!

[TMLee]

I almost always use unlined paper.

 

I dont use guides .

 

What i do is to constantly look at the page as I write word after word, or rather sentence after sentence.

 

As you do that, your eye will tell you whether you need to correct upwards or downwards.

 

So just make little adjustments if you have to.

Not every word has to be precisely horizontal. Each word may not be perfectly aligned with the previous nor the next one.

 

In the end, when the page is filled, it looks neat. Becos the sentences are generally horizontal, tho not perfect.

 

Its like drawing a page full of words, concentrating on each word to be aa horizontal as possible.

 

😊

[Frozenoak]

I tried using a ruler for a while but I kept having issues with line spacing. I have since started using a black self-healing cutting mat. I find that the white lines on a black background show through better than black lines on white. And for those occasions where I can't see through the paper (i.e. Post Cards) I use the ruler with the mat to maintain even line spacing.

 

Regards,

Dale

[milkb0at]

My old Basildon Bond letter-writing pad has a heavily lined sheet of paper you place under the page you're writing on to use as a guide. Is this called a''shitajiki''? Who knew?

 

Ah, yes, good old Basildon Bond. Thanks for reminding me where my lined under-sheet came from .

[DrDebG]

I use this website for making the grid or line pages that go under my TR paper in my journal. You can scale them however you desire. Very useful tool.

 

https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

[Tasmith]

 

Another dodge is to put lined paper under the unlined sheet, and place it all on an inexpensive LED lightbox. Now that these are very affordably-priced on Amazon and long-lived, they help a lot even with heavier sheets of blank paper.[/quote

 

The oldsters amongst us will remember that back in the day of surface mail at reasonable postage rates and much more expensive air mail, we had an abundance of 'onion skin' letter writing paper. It was very thin and unlined. It came in covered pads with a lined blotting sheet as the first page.

 

The blotting sheet worked well as long as the page one was writing on was still attached. Otherwise, everything shifted and lines went everywhere.

I bought this one at Joanne Fabrics last year. While not "cheap" it is well made and very thin so it's comfortable to use. https://www.joann.com/search?q=Cricut%20BrightPad

[markh]

I use this website for making the grid or line pages that go under my TR paper in my journal. You can scale them however you desire. Very useful tool.

 

https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

 

Yup - this is what I do.

The site has an almost infinite range of choices - gridded (with multiple grid and spacing patterns), dots, crosses, etc...

 

Play around for a while, find something that works for you and save the resulting PDF it gives you. You can then reprint whenever you need another sheet.

 

My experience has been that after a little while of using grid sheets under a blank sheet, I no longer need them. I don't know if that's just me, or for everyone. My hand/eye seem to adjust to writing a reasonably straight line with no assistance, and I no longer use the grid.

 

.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I don't write many letters, but my journals are mostly kept in notebooks with blank paper, so no doubt the same principles apply.

 

Even on lined paper, my handwriting can take an occasional wiggle, particularly if I'm tired or upset, but on the whole, it seems that it stays equally straight on blank or lined paper.

 

This may not seem very helpful, but unless one is aiming for extreme precision, I think it may not be necessary to make too much of a mystery of this. Simply practicing with regular writing is likely to produce good results without resorting to tips and tricks. Although when I think of it, I find myself doing something similar to what @pararis suggests above and keeping the top or bottom of the page in view.

Edited October 1, 2019 by ISW_Kaputnik

[DrDebG]

Yup - this is what I do.

The site has an almost infinite range of choices - gridded (with multiple grid and spacing patterns), dots, crosses, etc...

 

Play around for a while, find something that works for you and save the resulting PDF it gives you. You can then reprint whenever you need another sheet.

 

My experience has been that after a little while of using grid sheets under a blank sheet, I no longer need them. I don't know if that's just me, or for everyone. My hand/eye seem to adjust to writing a reasonably straight line with no assistance, and I no longer use the grid.

.

Ive noticed the same. My problem is that I almost get addicted to having the lined page underneath, and even when I am writing straight, I still feel like I need it.

 

Also, I have printed my lined and gridded sheets on a thicker, more cushy paper and it gives a surprising more comfortable writing experience. I also print them with a fairly dark line so that they are visible under most papers. For my journal pages, I generally print two pages - one for each side of the spread sheets and hold them under the original page with sticky notes folded over each page with the sticky part on each page.

Edited October 2, 2019 by 5Cavaliers

[DonLeone]

I write in columns. It improves reading speed and brevity. On an A5 page I'll draw a line down the middle. I tend to stay "in line" horizontally much more easily since my writing doesn't have to go all the way from left to right of the page but instead is in neat columns.

 

I don't use a ruler to figure out where the middle is. I use a sheet of A4 paper that is carefully folded in such a way that if I attach it to the edge of the paper, it'll give me the halfway position every time. Works great as a bookmark too.

[BaronWulfraed]

I write in columns. It improves reading speed and brevity. On an A5 page I'll draw a line down the middle. I tend to stay "in line" horizontally much more easily since my writing doesn't have to go all the way from left to right of the page but instead is in neat columns.

 

You've basically duplicated a stenographer (shorthand) pad -- except those flip up, rather than side-ways.

[Timotheus]

@5Cavaliers: that graphpaper tool is excellent; very convenient! Thanks!