There are two types of

hand writing analysis

groups
Graphology study of how handwriting
reflects a persons personality and
character traits
Questioned Document Examiner or
Forensic Document Examiner
=determining whether a questioned
writing of unknown origin was authored
by a person whose known writings are
available
 Uses of Handwriting Analysis
► Determine identity of writer
 In ransom notes
 In document forgery
 In death threats
 In suicide notes
 Can you think of others?
Comparisons Are Useful Because
► No two people have identical handwriting
► By adulthood, it is exclusive to an individual
► Even disguised handwriting will exhibit
some of the person’s individual
characteristics
 Standard Comparisons
► Includesample to be analyzed called an
EXEMPLAR
► Samples from an individual include
 Collected writing comes from prior to the
beginning of the investigation (helps prevent or
indicate when a person is disguising their
handwriting)
 Requested writing is a dictated text using the
same type of paper
 Same type of ink as the sample to be analyzed
 Characteristics for Comparisons
► Line quality – Do the letters flow or are they written with
intent strokes?
► Spacing of words and letters – an average
► Ratio of height and width of letters
► Connecting strokes – Are capital letters and lower case
letters connected?
► Unusual letter formations
► Pen pressure
► Slant – Left, right, slight or pronounced
► Baseline habits – Do the letters stay even on the baseline?
► Placement of diacritics – How are the t’s crossed and the
I’s dotted?
 Magnification
► Often investigators will use copy machine to
magnify particular letters and subgroups
► This allows a transparency overlay for
individual features
► Can be tricky because scale must be
maintained
 Forensic Document Examiner
► The best thing to examine is something with the
same words as the document in question.
► An examiner may dictate to a potential suspect,
slowly then faster so that they have less chance of
disguising the handwriting.
► Use same ink and paper (as said before) pencil,
ballpoint pen, fountain pen, marker, etc.