Writing Straight

[Jamesino]

When writing with blank paper, do you guys place a sheet of lined paper underneath as a guide to help your writing line up horizontally?

[dizzypen]

It depends on what I'm writing. For letters or something formal I do on occasion, but for things for my personal use I do not.

[ZeissIkon]

When writing with blank paper, do you guys place a sheet of lined paper underneath as a guide to help your writing line up horizontally?

 

I used to. Now, since the only blank paper I own is the Xerographic paper I keep for my laser and ink jet printers, I just print a document I created that has very faint lines on it -- these lines disappear in my writing, but are visible enough to guide my lines, and won't slip halfway down the page as can happen with the lined paper behind the writing sheet. BTW, there's so little ink on one of these lined sheets (25 or so lines one point thick in a very light blue-gray) that they cost virtually nothing to print compared to the cost of the blank sheets.

 

I also made a version of this with a homemade letterhead at the top, nice for the first page of a letter.

[GreenVelvet]

When writing with blank paper, do you guys place a sheet of lined paper underneath as a guide to help your writing line up horizontally?

 

No... other folks say they have a hard time writing in straight horizontal lines; although I have very few spacial gifts, being able to write in a uniform horizontal line on blank paper is one of them. Guess I'm lucky that way!

[AlaskanWriter]

I too write straight rather naturally... actually straighter without lines than with; with lines I don't form my letters against the line so I wander up and down between the lines... without them, I stay on the same 'plane'.

 

I have done it consciously in the past, for important leters, then I use the top edge as a guide for the first line, then the next line is gaged against the first, and so on.

 

G.

[spotted and speckled]

I write great straight lines. Unfortunately, they are all uphill and then there is this big triangle-shaped empty spot at the bottom of almost every page....

[smk]

I remember being told (a long time ago when I used to listen!) that the angle of the lines people write in show various personality traits e.g. lines going up mean the writer sets high goals, lines going down mean they start great but lose interest in things and so on.

 

Don't know if there's any truth to this but isn't it just a matter of shifting the paper a bit so its aligned with the natural angle of writing?

[voop]

I write great straight lines. Unfortunately, they are all uphill and then there is this big triangle-shaped empty spot at the bottom of almost every page....

 

A business-opportunity in trapezoid stationary and journals, perhaps?

[PAKMAN]

I write great straight lines. Unfortunately, they are all uphill and then there is this big triangle-shaped empty spot at the bottom of almost every page....

 

 

+1 :embarrassed_smile:

[Alexandra]

I used to use ruled paper because my lines would inevitably slope downward, but I also used to have sloppy handwriting which I worked hard to improve. As my handwriting improved, so did my lines. Now I can write an entire page with straight lines. It's nice to put a letter in the mail without cringing at its appearance

[sallywally]

When writing with blank paper, do you guys place a sheet of lined paper underneath as a guide to help your writing line up horizontally?

I am not currently writing letters, although I hope to correspond with friends that way soon. Mostly I write in journals, and I can't write straight so I always buy lined journals and pads....this includes graph paper lines, too. I hate crooked lines!

[Chthulhu]

When writing with blank paper, do you guys place a sheet of lined paper underneath as a guide to help your writing line up horizontally?

 

I used to. Now, since the only blank paper I own is the Xerographic paper I keep for my laser and ink jet printers, I just print a document I created that has very faint lines on it -- these lines disappear in my writing, but are visible enough to guide my lines, and won't slip halfway down the page as can happen with the lined paper behind the writing sheet. BTW, there's so little ink on one of these lined sheets (25 or so lines one point thick in a very light blue-gray) that they cost virtually nothing to print compared to the cost of the blank sheets.

 

I also made a version of this with a homemade letterhead at the top, nice for the first page of a letter.

 

Would you be willing to share your disappearing-lines document, or at least the color values for your lines? I've been experimenting with a similar arrangement, but haven't yet found a line that disappears to my satisfaction.

[ZeissIkon]

When writing with blank paper, do you guys place a sheet of lined paper underneath as a guide to help your writing line up horizontally?

 

I used to. Now, since the only blank paper I own is the Xerographic paper I keep for my laser and ink jet printers, I just print a document I created that has very faint lines on it -- these lines disappear in my writing, but are visible enough to guide my lines, and won't slip halfway down the page as can happen with the lined paper behind the writing sheet. BTW, there's so little ink on one of these lined sheets (25 or so lines one point thick in a very light blue-gray) that they cost virtually nothing to print compared to the cost of the blank sheets.

 

I also made a version of this with a homemade letterhead at the top, nice for the first page of a letter.

 

Would you be willing to share your disappearing-lines document, or at least the color values for your lines? I've been experimenting with a similar arrangement, but haven't yet found a line that disappears to my satisfaction.

 

I'll upload it for attachment here. The board wouldn't let me upload in OpenOffice Writer's ODT format, so I'm exporting as a PDF. If you'd rather have it in ODT or Word format, PM me and I'll upload it to my webspace and post a link.

 

Faintly_Lined.pdf

[Chthulhu]

That worked fine; thank you. It's possible you could have uploaded the .ODT simply by changing the file extension to something "legal" but that would have been cheating. <G>

 

Those are some seriously faint lines! :-)

[ZeissIkon]

Those are some seriously faint lines! :-)

 

Yes, they are.

[Lachesis]

Cool, really faint lines! I had to squint to see them, haha.

 

I hope you don't mind if I print out a few of these pages for my own personal journal. :embarrassed_smile:

 

As for me, I usually use ruled journals because my handwriting tends to slope up and down. :-(

 

Lachesis

Edited August 10, 2009 by Lachesis

[Gehaha]

Yes, I use a lined paper underneath most of the time, when writing letters.

I need a bit of visual help to get out straight lines.

I think it has to do with the lack of stereoscopic vision.

 

Best,

Anna

[ismellarat]

I am hopeless on unlined paper. So hopeless, infact, that my past 3 english teachers made exceptions to their "blank paper only" rule for final drafts just for me.

[Robert Hughes]

Usually I have a glass of wine or other mental lubricant in order to compose on paper. Writing straight doesn't even make sense ...

[DrPJM1]

I write on lined paper or use some underneath plain papers. I can't write on a straight line to save my life: the end always looks as if it is falling down the page into an abyss.