Handwriting

[1995hoo]

[Topic split from The Best of Road Signs.]

Looks pretty darn close to Series D. Except for the Catholic-style lowercase a.

Catholic-style?

ICTRds

By that I mean typography that looks like block print handwriting style, like this: http://www.k12reader.com/handwriting-practice-worksheets-block-style-print/.  I've always associated these letter forms with Catholicism, probably because I saw them in Catholic school materials and other Catholic publications, while the public elementary school I attended taught D'Nealian handwriting (with the little tails) and otherwise generally used more traditional typography. 

That style of handwriting was taught in the Fairfax County Public Schools, at least in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, as that's the style I remember learning.

[vtk]

Looks pretty darn close to Series D. Except for the Catholic-style lowercase a.

Catholic-style?

ICTRds

By that I mean typography that looks like block print handwriting style, like this: http://www.k12reader.com/handwriting-practice-worksheets-block-style-print/.  I've always associated these letter forms with Catholicism, probably because I saw them in Catholic school materials and other Catholic publications, while the public elementary school I attended taught D'Nealian handwriting (with the little tails) and otherwise generally used more traditional typography. 

That style of handwriting was taught in the Fairfax County Public Schools, at least in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, as that's the style I remember learning.

Yes but it's when those letterforms are used in a typeface which I generally call Catholic-style type.  When it's actual handwriting, I consider it to be rather ordinary.

[Alps]

I've always associated these letter forms with Catholicism, probably because I saw them in Catholic school materials and other Catholic publications, while the public elementary school I attended taught D'Nealian handwriting (with the little tails) and otherwise generally used more traditional typography. 

You mean someone out there handwrites "a"?

[vtk]

You mean someone out there handwrites "a"?

The three-storey version?  I've done so, but usually when trying to imitate a highway sign.  There are probably a few oddballs out there who do that regularly.

[agentsteel53]

The three-storey version?  I've done so, but usually when trying to imitate a highway sign.  There are probably a few oddballs out there who do that regularly.

my boss.  likely the result of his school system: he grew up in India.

[Kacie Jane]

I write the letter a like that.  For no good reason, certainly not because I was originally taught that way.

[1995hoo]

You mean someone out there handwrites "a"?

The three-storey version?  I've done so, but usually when trying to imitate a highway sign.  There are probably a few oddballs out there who do that regularly.

I knew someone who did that just for the sake of being different.

I used to write the number "4" as seen in this sentence, not with the open top most people use. I broke myself of the habit because as my handwriting got worse over the years, the triangular part of the "4" looked too much like a "9."

Going back to signs, I still rather like Georgia's modified Series D, but I can't really put my finger on why. I think it's probably just because it's different.

[BamaZeus]

I've always associated these letter forms with Catholicism, probably because I saw them in Catholic school materials and other Catholic publications, while the public elementary school I attended taught D'Nealian handwriting (with the little tails) and otherwise generally used more traditional typography. 

You mean someone out there handwrites "a"?

I have for linguistics classics, because in the phonetic alphabet there is an actual difference between two sounds represented by the different ways to write it.
http://www.nuspel.org/phonics-alphabet.html

The three-story a represents the sound as in the word "at", whereas the rounded a represents the sound like "ahhh".  At least I hope that makes sense.

[Scott5114]

I used to do the two-story "a" but dropped it because it was rather awkward.

I still have a lot of weird things in my handwriting. I do my 4s like the 4 found in the German DIN road sign font (open top but left line slanted). I also write 9s unusually, starting at the base of the tail and going up, since that allows me to make a 9 with a curved tail, rather than the version most people write with a loop, then a line down. Probably the most usual letterform I use is an A with a slanted crossbar.

Example:

[agentsteel53]

do you do your 5 with a vertical stroke, then a lid?

I do my 5 starting from upper right.  my 4s are slanted and closed.  my 9s are identical to yours.

...the Hell happened to your post, Scott?

Caught me just as I was splitting the new topic off...sorry about that! -S.

[Scott5114]

Yes, I do the 5s in the manner that you described.

Looking at the sample I uploaded reminds me that I also leave the tittles off the lowercase i, j, etc. unless there is some reason that not having them would be ambiguous.

I also tend to get kind of swashy on uppercase D, P, R, etc.

I wonder how many of us include features of FHWA Series in our handwriting? I certainly remember when I was trying to learn to write as a kid I tried to emulate that, rather than the Palmer and D'Nealian forms given as the ideal examples.

[Big John]

do you do your 5 with a vertical stroke, then a lid?

I do my 5 starting from upper right.

I always made the 5 the way you did, much to the dismay of some teachers.  Having to form a character that is one continuous movement by breaking it up into 2 parts never made since to me even as a young child.

[vtk]

do you do your 5 with a vertical stroke, then a lid?

I do my 5 starting from upper right.

I always made the 5 the way you did, much to the dismay of some teachers.  Having to form a character that is one continuous movement by breaking it up into 2 parts never made since to me even as a young child.

This.  I do my 5's like that as well, for the same reason, so when I'm in a hurry they might look like an S or a normal person's 9. Except I start my 9 at the bottom and then go around the loop counterclockwise.

I used to do my 1s with a hook and a bottom slab, but I got out of that habit when I has to learn standard technical drawing letterforms.  Now they're just a single vertical stroke.  My Is are also just a single vertical stroke, unless they're capitalized, though I'm not completely consistent in either case. (I tend to write in small-caps unless there's a specific need to be legible or literal.)

[Alps]

I write a 5 in one stroke when I write upside-down, and it looks like an S. It's the same as crossing and dotting the letters, I just run with it.

[Scott5114]

I do my 1s that way because I prefer distinguishing a 1 from an I as much as possible. I was doing just the hook at the top, but got occasional "is that a 1 or a 4" comments somehow (because apparently, some people make 4s the same way most people make 9s, they just don't connect the top all the way!). Thus, the bottom stroke.

[Pete from Boston]

I used to write the number "4" as seen in this sentence, not with the open top most people use. I broke myself of the habit because as my handwriting got worse over the years, the triangular part of the "4" looked too much like a "9."

I still do this, in spite of being taught the other way, because it's one stroke.  Open 4s look unfinished to me.

[AsphaltPlanet]

anybody else cross their 7's or z's?

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Me! I always cross Z and 7. I also do 9 with a straight line down, and I was forced to do a very open 4 due to that. It looks more like an open box with the right line extending below.

[english si]

I used to cross my 'z's when I joined up every letter and the zeds looked like ʒ (it was how I was taught) - the loop crossed back over. My 'f's looked like descended 8s with a line through them. Looking, I was taught cursive aged 4.

When I 'relearnt' how to write, starting secondary school, I stopped joining every letter, and went to z and f. I still used cursive 'z' (with full bottom loop to distinguish from Zeta) as a variable in algebra when I'd run out of letters in a block (eg u, v, w, x, y, z, ʒ).

4s have to be open, and ones 1 typically with the bottom bar if I've given it a hat. No 7s crossed, as the 1 is either hatless, has a very small hat, or has a small hat and a bottom bar. Also the top line is always vertical, unlike several European countries (which is why they cross the 7s).

[formulanone]

I only cross a 7 if it appears next to a T, and cross a Z if if appears next to a 2.

(Part numbers and VINs, for example.)

[1995hoo]

I used to write the number "4" as seen in this sentence, not with the open top most people use. I broke myself of the habit because as my handwriting got worse over the years, the triangular part of the "4" looked too much like a "9."

I still do this, in spite of being taught the other way, because it's one stroke.  Open 4s look unfinished to me.

I feel the same way, but I forced myself to write them the other way because mine were getting to the point where they were indistinguishable from a "9."

I've never crossed a "7," but in junior high and high school math classes I crossed the "z" when used as a variable because the teachers wanted us to do that to distinguish from a "2" (and I've never looped the bottom left corner of a "2").

[jeffandnicole]

I've always associated these letter forms with Catholicism, probably because I saw them in Catholic school materials and other Catholic publications, while the public elementary school I attended taught D'Nealian handwriting (with the little tails) and otherwise generally used more traditional typography. 

You mean someone out there handwrites "a"?

I do. Although if I right it next to a number, my version can be confused as a 2.

As my handwriting is generally pitiful, many of my letters and numbers can be confusing to read.

And yes, I fully admit, my typing isn't much better! :-)

[empirestate]

I frequently cross 7's and zeroes in alphanumeric settings, but never Z's. Guess I sort of forgot that was an option. I also typically put the hat on the 1 but not usually the base, and serifs on a capital I only when needed to distinguish it from a 1 or lowercase L. (I also apparently type a capital L even when referring to a lowercase one, for clarity.)

I still get a little thrown by European-style 1's that resemble lambdas; i.e., the hook goes all the way back down to the floor. As for my 4's, they're closed, and I start drawing them from the right end of the horizontal stroke. (I'm left-handed; I assume that makes a difference in several instances.) My 5's are single strokes, but I pause enough to get the hard angle between the top and the vertical. I draw 6's from the top down, but 9's I start from the junction of the loop and the vertical–in other words, the reverse of how I do a 6–and my 9's are fully curved.

I cross double letters such as "tt" or "ff" with a single stroke, not separate ones. I draw lowercase f from the bottom up, but I draw the musical symbol for "forte" (which resembles an f) from the top down because it has a descending tail with a little curve. I used to draw treble clefs with separate strokes for the vertical and the curvy bit, both from the top down, but now I do them in one stroke from the bottom up and back down, the same way I do &'s (but the results are distinct from each other, as treble clefs aren't slanted and have a little ball on the bottom).

[agentsteel53]

the only time I dot an "i" or "j" is when referring to the imaginary unit, and write those i's and j's in a cursive font.  I also happen to write "log" and "lim" in cursive, for whatever reason. 

"sin", "cos", etc, however - always printed.

[Dr Frankenstein]

I cross my 7's but not my Z's. I do my 5's in one stroke. My 1's are straight bars but my I's have top and bottom bars. I don't ever remember seeing anyone do three-story a's.