Help with improving my everyday handwriting.

[anonimasu]

Hello, I'm looking for some help with how to improve legibility and speed of my everyday handwriting(guidelines perhaps to make the slant more consistent or movements to practice to get better control over the pen. I made a writing sample attached, to show how my current handwriting looks like.

The ink is J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage and the pen is a Lamy Safari with a M nib.

/Anders

 

[Shell]

Well, as someone who reads a lot of handwriting--I'd say your's isn't too bad. It's pretty legible and not unattractive. A few hints:

 

1) Use dark ink; contrast really helps.

2) Capitalize when appropriate: "i" should be "I."

3) Consider teaching yourself italics. My students who use italics, and when I use it myself, have much clearer and prettier handwriting. It does also improve speed with practice.

 

But overall, I wouldn't despair, your writing is just fine.

[Inka]

Hello, I'm looking for some help with how to improve legibility and speed of my everyday handwriting(guidelines perhaps to make the slant more consistent or movements to practice to get better control over the pen. I made a writing sample attached, to show how my current handwriting looks like.

The ink is J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage and the pen is a Lamy Safari with a M nib.

/Anders

 

I just Googled "Penmanship" a few months back and came up with several Sites but this on called "Lessons in Calligraphy & Penmanship" had tons of samples from ages long past and lots of interesting Links.

http://www.iampeth.com/lessons.php#signature_writing

I found some templates there too, to print out calligraphy and other types of lined/graphed paper onto standard copy paper.

Getting decent templates is a great aid to practice angles and spacing on, still good for daily hand practice and not just calligraphy IMO.

 

I hope that helps get you on the right track.

[stedders]

Hello, I'm looking for some help with how to improve legibility and speed of my everyday handwriting

 

Hi Anders,

 

I can read your writing with no trouble at all!

 

You could practice basing your letters more consistently on the line, or practise getting a consistent slant by using one of the practice sheets from other posts in this forum.

 

In terms of your letter shapes:

• I really like the lower part of your y's and g's - stylish and distinctive (to my eyes at least).

Similarly, I also like the gentle loop on the top stroke of your d's, k's and l's.

Your e's might be worth some practice - they have a tendency towards a line without a loop, like an i.

Finally, your a's don't always join at the top, which can make them look like u's.

 

Hope this helps,

Andy

 

 

[anonimasu]

Thanks for all of your kind replies, I'll keep this in mind and find some practice sheets and start looking at italics(my main problem is which one to start learning because there seem to be alot of different ones) I'll post some progress here once I feel that I make any

 

/Anders

[OcalaFlGuy]

At least for me, some fairly oft practice seems to help. I pick a couple repeating passages to practice with

a try and concentrate on keeping the letters the same uniform height and size.

 

I found a nice FP friendly paper that I liked (Staples 28lb laser paper) and went on-line to one of those design

your own grids websites and whipped up a practice one I liked to the size I liked (backchannel me if you want

and I'll try and dig up the website I used). I did the paper the down and dirty way. I printed the grid out at

home and then took it to Staples. I used their copy machines and their paper. Yeah, that ended up being

about .05 a page but the benefit was twofold. I could only get a dollar or twos worth of paper without having

to buy a whole ream and I could easily use the custom function on the machine to adjust the darkness of the

grid lines. I made some very faint for practice sheets and a few SUPER dark and heavy (from my one original

sheet) to use under wiriting paper guide sheets.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[KateGladstone]

You might want to pay a visit to http://www.HandwritingThatWorks.com and/or stop by my Handwriting Repair table at the Long Island Pen Show. (I also plan to do the Chicago Pen Show.)

[pb2]

Well, as someone who reads a lot of handwriting--I'd say your's isn't too bad. It's pretty legible and not unattractive. A few hints:

 

1) Use dark ink; contrast really helps.

2) Capitalize when appropriate: "i" should be "I."

3) Consider teaching yourself italics. My students who use italics, and when I use it myself, have much clearer and prettier handwriting. It does also improve speed with practice.

 

But overall, I wouldn't despair, your writing is just fine.

 

 

I agree with Shell. Especially the "italic" part. I like what they do to my mediocre penmanship. I have actually impressed people (no one here on FPN of course) because the nib makes writing interesting. Send me you Lamy and $15 and I'll send it back with a new factory Safari italic on for you. Or I'll just sned the nib if you feel OK about putting it on yourself.

 

 

Also, practice makes perfect. Write out some things you would like to commit to memory. Write them out fifty or a hundred times and enjoy the stroke and flow of the italic line variation on the page.

[pb2]

Well, as someone who reads a lot of handwriting--I'd say your's isn't too bad. It's pretty legible and not unattractive. A few hints:

 

1) Use dark ink; contrast really helps.

2) Capitalize when appropriate: "i" should be "I."

3) Consider teaching yourself italics. My students who use italics, and when I use it myself, have much clearer and prettier handwriting. It does also improve speed with practice.

 

But overall, I wouldn't despair, your writing is just fine.

 

 

I agree with Shell. Especially the "italic" part. I like what they do to my mediocre penmanship. I have actually impressed people (no one here on FPN of course) because the nib makes writing interesting. Hey, italics impress chicks!

 

Send me you Lamy and $15 and I'll send it back with a new factory Safari italic on for you. Or I'll just send the nib if you feel OK about putting it on yourself.

 

 

Also, practice makes perfect. Write out some things you would like to commit to memory( worthy quotations, poetry, Bible verses, etc.). Write them out fifty or a hundred times and enjoy the stroke and flow of the italic line variation on the page. Then you can impress chicks by quoting poetry!

Edited March 7, 2009 by pb2

[KateGladstone]

Re:

" ... when I use [italic] myself, have much clearer and prettier handwriting" --

 

Hmmmm, it sounds as if you don't always write in Italic but you would like to.

Many people who gain some competence in Italic feel as if they would have to cross some kind of barrier -- a scribal "Great Divide," perhaps -- in order to use Italic for all everyday writing. If this describes you, you can ease yourself over the boundary as follows:

 

/1/ Each day, pick a particular letter -- or each week, pick a particular group of related-looking letters, such as "n/m/r/h/b/p" -- and resolve to write those letters in the Italic form throughout that day or that week: no matter what form other letters in your handwriting may take. (Do not worry about the form of those other letters: focus your efforts on perfecting, Italically, your Letter Of The Day or your Group Of The Week).

 

/2/ Once you find yourself writing a particular letter (or letter-group) reasonably well in Italic, all or almost all of the time, despite the other letters which still surround them, pick another letter or another letter-group to add to the list of those you will write in Italic. (For instance, if you started by resolving to write the letter "a" always in Italic -- and if after some days you find that you now habitually do so -- add to your Italic responsibilities the letter "b": or add some letter that looks rather similar to "a," such as "c" or "o." If you started with a particular group of letters, such as "n/m/r/h/b/p," extend your Italic responsibility to another group of letters, such as "u/v/w" or "a/c/d/g/o/q" perhaps, so that over time you incorporate more and more Italic letters into your existing writing.)

 

/3/ In addition to incorporating the Italic forms of the letters "under way" into ordinary writing, devote a few minutes each day specifically writing out these letters (and words containing/composed of these letters) in Italic for concentrated practice. Once you have done this for a certain number of letters, consider adding your own name to the practice material (in order to create a new signature -- don't use it publicly, of course, till you have registered it with your bank!) Obviously, how long it takes before you can start practicing an Italic signature will depend on the order in which you have chosen to work on incorporating particular Italic letters into your everyday handwriting, as well as on the length of your name -- someone named "Ivy Hall" will reach the name-writing/signature-practice stage appreciably earlier than someone named "Theophrastus Archibald Montmorency Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff."

 

Follow the above steps, and -- sooner than you think possible -- your Italic will probably graduate from a "sometime" thing to, well, just the way you always write.

 

To those who wonder if you really CAN legally change a signature: keep in mind that this happens fairly frequently. Women who change their names upon marriage have to fill out new signature-cards at the bank -- so do people whose handwriting has appreciably changed owing to worsening vision, other illness, or age. And, of course, visiting the bank to explain why you need a new signature-card -- not because of a name-change, but because of your handwriting actually improving -- just may get a few people interested in improving their own handwriting too!

Of course, when you fill out a new signature-card, ask the bank to keep your old card on file too: not out of any fear that you will regress to your former signature (in my experience, this has never happened with people following the three steps above), but simply because you very likely have checks in transit which you'd signed before making the change. (Even after all such checks have cleared, keeping both the old and new cards on file will make it easy to establish at any later date -- if necessary for some reason -- that both the old and the new signatures came from the same person. By now, enough adults have changed their handwriting to Italic that, to my personal knowledge, at least two of the top experts in the document-examination/signature-identification field have taken note of this phenomenon and have encouraged their colleagues to research it as a significant modern development in the world of handwriting.)

 

 

[Inka]

Hi Kate,

 

Very informative and precisely explanatory reply!

Makes perfect sense, something I'm going to try as well even though my handwriting is not completely awful and is already legible it can still use improvement.

I can still use the practice you've described, especially seeing that my a/b/p/s/o/d/g and so forth don't always close.

In the case of looped letters. especially lower case such as l/j/g/d/q, they often look too tight [like a straight line instead of a smooth, flowing loop].

Good stuff.

 

I have an inherited neuro-/muscular disorder of the hands, known as Dupuytrens' Contracture, that can make it extremely painful to write.

Switching over to fountain pens has reduced the pain, the spasms, the clawing inward of my fingers toward palms, typically occurring with ball point or RB pens.

Luckily I was diagnosed early, so while I have the active disease it hasn't progressed to nodes on my palms or permanent disfigurement of my hands.

I've been able to keep it under control with avoidance of tasks that cause pain, such as gripping anything thin or grasping tools often such as screwdrivers.

Using a large-barrel fountain pen with a smooth flowing F+ nib makes all the difference, as I can write for longer periods and without the intense pain.

If I can learn to write cursive/italic without the need to go back and fix open or closed loops, doing this automatically, it would be a great help to my hands.

I cannot afford to pay for lessons, so getting this information from you on this forum means a great deal to me.

Thank you, for sharing.

[KateGladstone]

Thanks for your reply!

 

Regarding Dupuytren's and the inward-clawed fingers -- might you find things easier if you changed from the usual pen-hold to the "index/middle finger" pen-hold as I've heard hand-therapists call it?

 

The "index/middle" or "between-two-fingers" pen-hold simply means holding the pen between the index and middle fingers, which should curve anyway for this particular pen-hold (like the left and right sides of a clamp).

 

You can see this pen-hold illustrated at

http://briem.ismennt.is/4/4.1.3a/4.1.3.3.cramp.htm (the next-to-last picture)

on the excellent Italic-handwriting site of my colleague Gunnlaugur Briem --

you can also see it in photos of Albert Schweitzer, who wrote this way because of (reportedly) some kind of hand problem.

 

I've seen the index/middle pen-hold work for some people with (or even without) hand-problems, but have also seen it definitely NOT work for other people who have tried it).

 

For those wondering if they can consider this pen-hold anything but "weird," note that it appears in at least two handwriting series published today:

 

/1/

it appears as an optional pen-hold (for those unable to manage the standard pen-hold) in current editions of the Getty-Dubay Italic books

 

and

 

/2/

it also appears (rather unfortunately, in my view) as the *only* permissible pen-hold in current editions of the D'Nealian handwriting series (a series which I believe to, well, need improvement in this and in many other areas. I know personally the man who designed that series -- which the publisher actually seriously and intentionally WORSENED in the course of bringing it to print, changing a possibly useful early edition into something that [in my opinion and observation] has actually created handwriting-difficulties for many people. Ask me sometime for the story of how a major publisher intentionally worsened a handwriting curriculum in hopes that the deteriorations would make it "more acceptable" to teachers/administrators with little knowledge of handwriting.)

[Inka]

Thanks for your reply!

 

Regarding Dupuytren's ...

Thanks for your concerns and for the Links; you are very, very kind to think of me about this situation I face and by trying to help me.

I have tried the things you've mentioned, along with other things I've tried not mentioned herein and they still don't really help much with my condition.

I use soft rubber tubes on my special Gel ink, nitrogen-compressed Space Pens and that does help some, even have several Dr. Grip styles that help some.

Even all that is still just not enough for more than brief periods of writing, before my hand begins to cramp and hurt.

Writing appliances I've tried have also help some, just not enough to stop the problems as my hand still cramps after only short periods of writing.

 

The best thing I've found was getting my first very large barrel fountain pen, one on which the cap posts firmly, with excellent balance when posted.

It's a Levenger Plumpster F nib pen, one that I've re-worked and polished down to an XXXF nib, that's buttery smooth with no scratching, skipping or cramping.

Using a good nib like my re-worked Plumpster helps immensely, one that writes extremely smooth on all paper types, plus the ink flows perfectly and writes smooth as silk.

Holding the Plumpster between my index and middle finger, lightly against my thumb [absolutely no pressure, just the weight of the pen just as fountain pens are supposed to be used] works perfectly for me.

It glides ultra-smoothly, can be held loosely while writing and I find no hand cramping at all, no finger-clawing either while using this pen.

The Levenger Plumpster allows me hours of writing enjoyment and sketching/drawing, it's absolutely and totally "pain-free", something no other pen I've owned has ever done for me.

 

Thanks again, Kate; you're an awesome person to be so considerate, so willing to share with me your tips and experiences!

 

I must run for now but I'll be sure to re-check your post and the Links, just as soon as I can.

Great stuff, just no time at the moment to look into it in more detail as much as I'd like to.

Still, I really do appreciate it!

See you again soon.

[anonimasu]

Thanks for all the tips, as the recomendations I've started to write a bit of italics.

It seems like even a little practice like that helps alot with my normal cursive handwriting with a normal nib(do the people of you that use italics use them for keeping notes like when you are having meetings or classes and things like that, or do you revert and write cursive when you need to write really fast or do you just write cursive with a italic nib for thoose occations?).

Thanks for the offer about the italic nib, but I cant ship or receive anything within a reasonable time beacuse im in Sweden and mail from and to the country is so slow(about 10 days or so if I am unlucky).

I ordered one from a local shop that should arrive today probably.

 

[Inka]

Thanks for the offer about the italic nib, ...

I ordered one from a local shop that should arrive today probably.

If you have the capabilities to take pictures, especially macro photography, I'd love to see pics and hear your opinions of the new nib.

I've been practicing my right-leaning italic handwriting and have been wondering myself what a nib change could do for me.

[anonimasu]

Thanks for the offer about the italic nib, ...

I ordered one from a local shop that should arrive today probably.

If you have the capabilities to take pictures, especially macro photography, I'd love to see pics and hear your opinions of the new nib.

I've been practicing my right-leaning italic handwriting and have been wondering myself what a nib change could do for me.

 

Here you go, hope it helps give you some idea, I've just been writing for about 15 minutes with the nib since I got it, so I need more practice ^_^

[Inka]

I like the subtle changes in line widths, created with this new nib.

Now I really want one too.

It's already making your handwriting look more elegant.

Thank you, for posting the example.

 

Just an observation and not criticism; you may wish to practice dotting your i's and crossing your t's, plus make all your capitals upper-case.

I only mention this since I had to read some words more than once, in their related sentences, before I knew what word was written.

Maybe you can practice writing individual letters of the alphabet, upper and lower case, until it becomes second nature to you?

Other than that I am already seeing an improvement in your handwriting and the Italic nib makes your handwriting look even better.

That "red" Lamy[?] ink does look more like a brown/orange color than a red, on my monitor, not sure if I like it either, but your handwriting is improving.

:clap1:

[anonimasu]

I have a issue with the italic nib on the safari, I'm not really sure how to properly hold the pen I write with my pen slightly angled like \ over the paper and it seems like my line variation ends up really weird when I do that. Does anyone know what the proper angle to hold the pen at is to get _nicer_ variations?

 

/Anders

[caliken]

I have a issue with the italic nib on the safari, I'm not really sure how to properly hold the pen I write with my pen slightly angled like \ over the paper and it seems like my line variation ends up really weird when I do that. Does anyone know what the proper angle to hold the pen at is to get _nicer_ variations?

 

/Anders

If you can hold your pen so that the edge of the nib is at 45 degrees from the writing line, when you write vertical and horizontal lines, they will be of equal width (see letter 'L' below). If you then keep the nib at that writing angle, it will create the typical width variations as you move the pen over the paper as in the 'O' below. At the very top of tyhe letter 'L' you can see the angle at which the nib met the paper.

As you develop confidence in writing italic, there is flexibility in this nib-edge angle, but if you stay at the 45 degrees for now, you'll find that the nib does the variation job for you.

 

caliken

 

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd289/caliken_2007/italicnib.jpg

Edited March 19, 2009 by caliken

[KateGladstone]

Your writing is definitely improving, but may I suggest (in addition to the comments that others have offered) making yourself aware that "w" becomes illegible when you end it at the base-line? (Going back down to the bottom of a "w" before joining it to the next letter -- as you have done -- makes it resemble a pair of "u"s or a sloppy "m".)

 

For legibility, the letter "w" (like some other letters such as "v") needs to end (and needs to start its join) ABOVE the base-line. If you join out of "w/v" at all (I don't, and I don't recommend that others try to), join out of these letters by just moving the pen horizontally into the starting-point of the next letter (NOT counting the join into a letter as part of the letter) instead of dipping down to the base-line and up again from there as you have done.

 

If you need a graphic of this, remind me next week, because preparing for the Long Island Pen Show will leave me too busy to draw one right now.