Examination of

Handwriting
BY: MS. VAISHALI ABROL
Handwriting????
 An individual personal style of penmanship is
called handwriting.

 Penmanship refers to the technique of writing

with hand using writing instrument.
Contd….
 Handwriting is the acquired art like painting, dancing or cycling.

 It is the visible results of mental and muscular habits developed by individual

after a long painstaking efforts.
Process of development of handwriting

Creates a mental
In the early stages, Writing gets
impression of the
students copy the mature after a
model or character
standard letter continuous efforts
presented before
forms. and practice
him
Person develops his
own habit of writing

Habit never dies

No two persons can write

exactly alike
Why handwriting is unique?
 Our individuality is developed through what we receive via various senses.

 An individual by his nature, habit & custom acquires a particular system of

forming letters. as a result, the writings of individual is characterized by
fixed and definite character which distinguishes his handwriting from other
persons.
Contd…
 The person cannot perfectly reproduce the standard model of any character.
there are some mental and muscular deviations of individual resulting in
nerve-muscle reaction pattern giving handwriting its individuality.

 Individuality in handwriting is also developed as a result of conscious and

unconscious influence of writings of some other person which we often see.
Contd…
 The one who writes more shows more maturity in his writing and can
develop more individual characteristics.

 The nature of work also affects the writings. e.g. doctors, lawyers, gamblers
etc. they all have their own peculiar terminology, abbreviations and
simplifications (individual to them).
Basic rules for identification of Handwriting
1. Each mature writer has a handwriting which is personal and individual to
him alone.

2. Deterioration of an individual's writing due to any cause affects all the

writing properties and is not confined to changes of one or two elements.

3. A writer cannot exceed his maximum writing ability or skill without serious
efforts and training applied over a period of time.
Contd…
4. Attempted disguise leads to an inferior, and never a better quality of
handwriting.

5. Writing variations is an essential property of everyone's handwriting.

Identification and comparison of handwriting
 Handwriting examination mainly rely on different writing characteristics:

A.General writing characteristics or class characteristics

B.Individual writing characteristics

C.Stylistic Features
 Movement
Pictorial Line
effect quality

Pressure Speed

General
writing
characte
ristics Slant/
Rhythm
slope

Skill Spacing

Relative Alignme
size nt
General writing characteristics
Movement: Motion of writing instrument with the action of hand on the writing surface.

Writer may use Finger, wrist, elbow or shoulder movement and their combinations.

Finger movement:

Hold pen with thumb, index finger, middle finger or sometimes ring finger and the motion
comes from these fingers.

The hands rests in air and inferior quality of writing is produced.

 General writing characteristics
Features of Finger Movement Writing:

The writer constantly readjusts his or her hand when writing across
the page. This constant adjustment can be seen in abrupt turns
and breaks in the letters. – Irregular Connections

It is primarily used by unskilled writers/ illiterates/ toddlers and

indicates unfamiliarity with the writing process.

The writing will show frequent stops and pauses.

Vertical Writing

Lack of clear cut strokes

Lack of Rhythm
 General writing characteristics
Wrist Movement :

Produced by movement of the hand with the wrist as

center of attraction.

Motion comes from the wrist as it rests on the writing

surface.

Features of Wrist Movement Writing:

Inclined Writing

Angular and Less space between the letters.

More degree of freedom

Fast
 General writing characteristics
Forearm Movement :

Arm of the writer rests on the writing surface and the

action comes from the elbow.

Features of Forearm Movement Writing:

Good quality

Rapid writing speed

Gives more command and lateral freedom

Smooth

Clear cut strokes

Finger Movement

Forearm Movement
Wrist Movement

Wrist Movement
 General writing characteristics
Whole arm Movement :

Whole- arm movement is the action of arm

without resting point and pivot.

Motion comes from shoulder.

Features of Whole arm Movement

Writing:

Large in size

black board writing

 General writing characteristics
Line Quality: Measure of continuity, uniformity, correctness of the strokes

smooth, poor and defective.

Relative size: It is the Evaluation of size of letters(small and tall ). The size of
handwriting may vary according to the circumstances in which it is written. Measured in
relative to the characters.

small medium and large.

Speed: The amount of time it takes a writer to execute a handwriting. Higher the
movement , higher the speed, higher the skill.

slow, medium and fast

 LINE QUALITY
Do the letters flow or are they erratic and shaky?

Line quality is the smoothness, evenness, directness/correctness of

strokes. Line quality should be smooth, even, free from tremors.
General writing characteristics
 Slant: It refers to the direction in which the writing leans. Or the angle made by
the base of the character to the baseline.

vertical, forward and backward.

 Spacing: Spacing between letters, characters and lines

narrow, wide, normal.

 Alignment: It is the arrangement of letters on the baseline.

straight, ascending, descending, arched and irregular.

Spacing

Narrow spacing

Wide spacing

Normal spacing
Alignment

Descending

Ascending

Horizontal
General writing characteristics
 Skill: It is the maximum ability of a person to write without any external support.

poor, medium, good.

 Rhythm: The flow of writing, the precise spelling and punctuation, and the
proportionate construction of letters and figures are all indicators of rhythm in
writing.

fluent, non-fluent

 Pressure: Pen pressure may be defined as the force or pressure applied on the
writing instrument during writing operation.

light, medium and heavy

 Poor Skilled
writer

Good Skilled
writer
Pressure variations in handwriting
General writing characteristics
 Shading: The widening of pen stroke
due to added pressure on a flexible
pen nib by the person at the time of
writing is called shading.
Pictorial Effect
 The ability to create a visual effect in writing is a
sign of the writer’s expertise.

 Handwriting can be sloppy, artistic, hesitating

or nervous.

 Handwriting that is artistic is indicative of

creative mind.

 Patients, elderly and the infirm write slowly and

laboriously.
Individual writing characteristics
These particular aspects or features of writings are peculiar
to a specific writer.
Individual writing characteristics
1. Commencement of letters
2. Letter design
3. Simplifications
4. Connecting strokes

A stroke joining two letters

together is known as
connecting strokes.

5. Start and finish of letters

 6. Direction and curvature of strokes

7. Length, angularity and direction of strokes

8. Extent of retracing

9. Appearance, size and shape of loops

 10. Starting and Ending Strokes

• The first writing movement of letter is

known as the Initial stroke.
• The stroke which forms the final
portion of letter is known as terminal
or ending stroke.
• Presence of hook or tick at the start or
finish stroke

11. Non uniformity of letters height

12. Embellished writings

 Certain writers use

embellishment to enhance the
pictorial quality of their writings.
They are scribbled flourishes.
These embellishments are
unique to the author.
 The embellishment strokes can
be seen in the beginning and
finish of the letters, as well as in
the emphasizing line after
signatures.

 Fancy details added on to

make something look better
or nicer
 13. Nature of i-dot

14. Nature of t-bar

15. Is the ratio of height to width
consistent?
16. Are there printed letters, cursive
letters, or both?
17. Are letters completely formed? or, is part of a letter missing?
Stylistic features
It is the scientific study of patterns of variations in written language. Unique style of writing of individual :

STYLE MARKERS

Formation of paragraphs

Giving headings and subheadings

Page numbers or any identifying features and their location

Arrangement of letters & words along the margin

Nature and location of date

 Contd…
Misspellings

Emphasizing of words

Location and nature of punctuation marks (coma, semicolon, exclamation, question marks,

quote mark, parenthesis etc).

Grammar or Vocabulary
Use of alternative forms : (& , with , which , K/a)

Use of Profanity (Slang)

LIT – amazing, cool

 TBH – to be honest

Fam – Group of friends

OMG , Emo, SHIT

Nature of Bullets etc.