Your Least Favourite Letter

[JeffPDX2]

All of the following is with respect to Copperplate/Engrossers script.

 

It used to be any majuscule. :-)

 

I read a paper on Iampeth by Joe Vitolo on the basis of all letters on the oval, and suddenly a lot made sense, and most letters got better.

 

Now, I have the most difficulty with anything with a long upstroke connecting two downstrokes: M, N, V, W (ok, V has one downstroke...it is still hard for me).

 

And then is 'z', both the minuscule and majuscule. I have trouble achieving the right slant to the weighted down strokes.

[mrcharlie]

I can write the lower z fine if I'm just drilling it; writing it alone. Or if it is the first letter of a word.

 

When I have to write a z in the midst of a word it never comes out right. It isn't high enough priority/I don't use it often enough to bother drilling with words that have a z in order to fix it.

 

Upper case z is a stupid shape, but I have no problem making it, since it is never coming linked from another letter.

[pmhudepo]

If I'm in a hurry... 'c' looks like 'e', 'd' like 'cl' and 'r' instead of having that nice, curly, wavy top, looks like 'v'. If I slow down a bit, they're fine.

 

Letter 'x' always looks weird if I try the Palmer version. We used to have a nicer, more elegant version that looks a bit like the Command-key on an Apple keyboard. I think I'll stick with that letter.

 

In majuscules, 'I', 'J' and 'K' never look right. The first two are easily confused, the latter just ugly.

[The Good Captain]

My least favourite letter is the one from the bank.

[zuerincolour]

or the right side of 租.

 

Uh oh. My Chinese name has 祖 in it. You'd hate it!

 

My most hated letter would have to be lowercase f because my heavy sloping causes the f to look like a really long and mutated lowercase L. It has no gaps between the two loops when I write fast. When I write slower, I don't really hate any letter in particular.

[zuerincolour]

My least favourite letter is the one from the bank.

 

If we're going to be talking about letters like that, then letters telling me how much debt I'm in because of studies would be my least favourite.

[flyingfox]

If I'm in a hurry... 'c' looks like 'e', 'd' like 'cl'....

 

+1, but the other way around... my "cl" end up looking like a "d" at times, and an "e" could be deflated to become like a "c" if I am not careful.

[pmhudepo]

x

 

 

[pmhudepo]

 

+1, but the other way around... my "cl" end up looking like a "d" at times, and an "e" could be deflated to become like a "c" if I am not careful.

 

Oh, sure. Despite countless practice sessions with Mr. Mills, I am still perfectly capable of Chicken Scratch. Noooo problem. At All.

[Fabienne]

The uncial a.

[thang1thang2]

The capital B. Screw that thing, I can never make it look pretty. My D's come out pretty good if I try, but if I don't they're messy as all else. The capital K is a piece of work for me too. I can never make it look balanced...

 

As for the lower letters, I detest writing the 'c' and 'e' close together, because they look so similar. But my most hated, by far, would have to be the 'r'. Or rather, the "i without a dot" as it comes out to look like more often than not. Or the "hump thingey" the other half of the time...

[HDoug]

Strangely enough, minuscule c. Writing quickly, I often render it without the proper curvature so it looks like an i without the dot. I note historical writing with the c written with the curve extending below the baseline when beginning a word. Maybe that was to counteract the same tendency. Maybe not.

Doug

[bluejay]

Capital G...who invented this ugly letter?

[mrcharlie]

Capital G...who invented this ugly letter?

 

I'm speculating here, but I think the curly bit at the top originally looked sort of like what a print G should look like, or close to it. I don't know why it needs to be on a pedestal.

 

The basic form has been mutated and simplified in some versions of cursive so that the top part no longer looks like a G.

 

 

Edit: By happenstance, I saw a painting on a TV show monogrammed by the artist with a cap G that looked like a small cursive g made large, but the loop not quite connected which makes sense when compared with a print cap G. I'd seen this form of cursive G before but not often and had forgotten about it. It makes sense if you start with this, and try to make a version of it that has no descender, and you end up with my initial cap G form in the illustration above. And then the further flatter and less recognizable versions as before.

 

Edited June 25, 2013 by mrcharlie

[palendra]

Lowercase r's are some of my least favorite letters. I just can't seem to write them well consistently.