Handwriting is not only beautifully or illegibly written letters, but also an indicator of a person’s character and mental state. There is a certain science that studies different writing styles and how to determine character from handwriting. By understanding the writing style, you can easily determine the strengths and weaknesses of the writer, as well as his emotional and mental state. The ability to understand a person by his handwriting will definitely have a positive impact on relationships with loved ones. It will be possible to communicate with them at a level at which it was previously unthinkable to talk.
Small letters
Small handwriting, similar to tiny beads, indicates rationalism and prudence in the character of the writer. Such a person has great self-control and is quite observant. Rounded letters indicate a desire to draw attention to one’s personality, as well as the fact that a person is prone to grandeur and has a high sense of self-esteem. Routine and impracticality are not for him. Rounded small letter shapes also indicate self-confidence, ease of communication, as well as activity and ambition. Letters that are too small speak of their owner as a reasonable and reserved person who often behaves thriftily and prudently. It is very important to know what handwriting says. Thus, a neat and concise style of writing is characteristic of mercantile and conservative people.
The sweep of the dash
What does the sweep of handwriting indicate?
- neat handwriting reveals a person’s desire to take up as little space as possible, to hide completely, or simply not to disturb others. Tendency to take a leading position, to play second roles.
- Average handwriting - like everything average, makes it practically impossible to draw conclusions about a person’s individuality.
- sweeping handwriting speaks of self-confidence, leadership, and pressure. Such a person makes decisions quickly and is ready to lead. In his actions, he often does not take into account the opinions of the people around him, so he may be considered a tyrant or an egoist.
- uneven handwriting is evidence of a fickle, captivating nature, prone to wildly rejoice and be very upset, to rush from one extreme to another. This quiet and inconspicuous man has just been sitting in the corner, and suddenly we find him passionately arguing something in the center of the room. His eyes light up, his movements are wide and confident. But this wave passes and soon we find him again in his favorite corner.
Sweeping manner
Types of handwriting vary greatly. And accordingly, the character traits of people differ. Those with sweeping handwriting are endowed with strategic abilities. Such people tend to be entrepreneurial. They think systemically and globally. They can easily navigate in unfamiliar surroundings. They lead an active and sociable lifestyle. Such individuals are extroverts, find a common language with almost everyone, love to joke and show off. They go through life easily, without bothering themselves with minor problems. They try to approach everything with optimism and joy. They perceive past mistakes as necessary life experience.
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Category: Letter
In other languages:
English: Have Beautiful Writing, Español: tener letra más bonita, Português: Ter uma Boa Caligrafia, Italiano: Avere una Bella Scrittura, Deutsch: Eine schöne Handschrift haben, Français: avoir une écriture splendide, Nederlands: Een mooi handschrift hebben, Čeština: Jak mít krásné písmo, Bahasa Indonesia: Memiliki Tulisan Tangan yang Indah, العربية: الكتابة بخط جميل, 中文: 能写一手好看的英文, ไทย: มีลายมือสวย, हिन्दी: सुंदर हैंडराइटिंग पा एँ
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What is written? Unclear
It is very common to encounter people who have illegible handwriting. This is an indicator of secrecy. These persons are trying to hide their true position. They often try to mislead the interlocutor, constantly wagging and cunning. They are afraid of becoming understood. To be an open book is almost tantamount to death for them. Feigned naivety and openness - that’s what handwriting of this type speaks of. In fact, those with an illegible writing style carefully observe their interlocutor and can quite unexpectedly resort to manipulating a person, relying on previously collected information about him. Such subjects can be extremely dangerous. After all, they constantly wear a “mask,” which can confuse a person. In essence, they are formal and quite official, and under certain circumstances they reveal their bureaucracy. They are stubborn, have strong opinions about everything in life, and are also influenced by stereotypes.
How is handwriting formed?
According to experts, handwriting is formed from early childhood: in primary school, a child learns writing skills, by the age of 13-14, handwriting acquires individual characteristics and by the age of 18-20 it is completely formed.
Expert opinion
Primary school influences handwriting only in terms of practicing writing skills - this skill is developed and reinforced in us, but over time the child brings it to automatism and no longer pays much attention to ensuring that the letters are outlined the way they were taught in copybooks.
Usually from this moment teachers begin to say that the handwriting has “gotten bad.” In fact, it simply ceased to be stereotyped and began to reflect individual character traits. Handwriting is influenced by human nature itself. At the same time, personal characteristics are reflected in handwriting only after this skill has reached automatism.
Larisa Drygval
Head of the Center for the Study of Handwriting at the Inessa Goldberg Institute of Graph Analysis, graphologist, candidate of psychological sciences
As forensic expert and graphologist Sergei Sergeev told m24.ru, from the age of 18-20 a person develops a so-called dynamic stereotype of handwriting. If we analyze manuscripts made before this period, the data will be characterized by immaturity, since handwriting had not yet been fully formed before this time. According to the expert, it is possible to learn to write, but to unlearn it is impossible, even despite the dictatorship of the computer era.
In the 90s, scientists conducted an experiment: the experiments were associated with changes in personal characteristics and handwriting under the influence of hypnosis. Through suggestion, the subjects were returned to the age when a person was just learning to write - handwriting instantly became childish and uncertain. A similar process occurred when a person was brought into a state of more mature age - then handwriting acquired individual characteristics, became more confident and fluent.
Above is handwriting at the age of 27 in a normal state, below is handwriting of the same person under hypnosis (awareness of oneself at the age of 10).
Photo: illustration from Dmitry Zuev-Insarov’s book “Handwriting and Personality”
Pretentiousness in writing
What does exquisite handwriting say? This is a sign of vanity and huge conceit, which often turns out to be too exaggerated. Balanced people are not prone to being carried away by curly curls. They try to display the letters clearly and understandably for the reader. Even in past centuries, curly handwriting was evidence of noble origin. But today the opinion about this has changed. In these days of constant bustle and hectic life, excessive ornateness of letters only indicates a desire to stand out and attract as much attention to one’s person as possible.
How much should you study?
Independently developing handwriting using an imitative method requires systematic work: to write beautifully, this must be done every day for at least 15-30 minutes; classes once a week for an hour will not give anything, the skill will not be formed. But you need to understand that these should be special classes in the formation of handwriting, and not writing at lectures or lessons at school, where, due to the high pace of writing, there is no need to talk about the beauty of notes and training of elements. You will have to study handwriting separately.
When the work in copybooks and notebooks with oblique rulers is completed, it is best to buy the most beautiful notebook and start working in it: writing poetry, sayings of famous people, passages of prose. It is also recommended to simply write more with a pen, for example, keep a diary, paint, sculpt, draw, do finger exercises. After systematic practice, you will be able to change your handwriting for the better.
True, there are diseases and characteristics of the nervous system that do not allow achieving brilliant results; in this case, you need to consult a doctor. It is also worth noting that people suffering from dyslexia have problems with handwriting, or rather, with writing.
Monotone
If the letters are drawn too carefully, thick and thin lines alternate evenly and correctly, then this is evidence that the owner of such handwriting occupies a subordinate position in work or even personal life. He does not have a well-developed imagination and is unable to clearly express his own opinions. Uniformity in the style of writing, the predominance of thick lines, blurring in the difference between ascending and descending lines indicate a rude and indelicate person.
Hold the handle freely, without tension
A gentle, light grip is the basis of good handwriting. An easy grip is obtained when the arm muscles are not overstrained and the nails do not begin to turn white from strong pressure.
Many people squeeze the pen so tightly that their hand begins to ache within the first minutes of writing. We often do this involuntarily, so make it a habit to mentally check every few minutes to make sure you are holding your pen freely.
Tilt left
Leaning to the left is less common. If it is light, then such a person is quite restrained and proud, and has almost no predisposition to art. With a large tilt to the left, one can speak of the writer as a person who often suppresses his emotional manifestations. For this reason, long periods of low mood or acute melancholic attacks may occur.
It is important to remember one more detail when analyzing slant and handwriting. This is the mood of the individual while writing. After all, the slope is an indicator of the state of mind. So, for example, in an angry letter or in a love letter, the slant of the handwriting is visible more clearly than is usually typical for a person.
Write on lined paper or lined paper
Beautiful and even words are the shortest way to neat handwriting! When writing a letter, place a piece of paper from your notebook under the white sheet of paper. It will probably show through, and you can use the lines of the paper as guides so that all the lines of the letter are even. And if you don’t mind lined sheets, write directly on them.
In addition to this point, I will say: always use a backing. No matter which sheet you choose to write on, there should always be another one underneath it. For some reason, any pen begins to write better on the slightly softer surface of two sheets of paper.
Strings
If a person writes maintains equal distances between words, applies even pressure on the pen, and is careful, then this indicates his balance and willpower. Quite large spaces between words indicate a selfish nature with which it will be difficult to establish contact. An optimistic and romantic man near the margins of the sheet raises the lines up. If the opposite happens and the lines go down, then this is a sign of a sentimental character and a depressive nature.
Carrying out an examination
To determine the originality of a signature and detect falsified documents, handwriting examination is often carried out. When carrying out such a procedure, it becomes possible to reliably identify the person who signed the papers or wrote the text. To do this, handwriting samples of suspected people are taken and compared with the evidence. Such expertise often serves as a good assistant in resolving complicated court cases regarding forgery of important documentation.
Preview:
How to learn to write beautifully?
In order for you to develop beautiful handwriting, you need to follow the following algorithm, which will let you understand how to learn to write beautifully.
So, how can an adult learn to write letters beautifully?
- Prepare your work area. You need a clean desk, on which only the necessary items should lie: a few ballpoint pens, a couple of sheets of paper, preferably striped, and calligraphic samples, for example, copybooks (you can do without them if you wish).
- Sit at the table and take the correct position: your back is straight, do not lean on the back of the chair, your elbows should be on the table.
- Place a blank sheet of paper in front of you, the distance from your eyes to the sheet is at least 30 cm. If necessary, open a sample alphabet (copybook).
- Hold a ballpoint pen with three fingers—thumb, index, and middle. The distance from your fingers to the paper should not be less than 1 cm.
- Write the first letter of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, as carefully as possible, looking at the example if necessary. Repeat this action until you reach your goal.
- Change ballpoint pens periodically. You need to determine which pen you write best with, so that in the future you can buy only this type of pen.
- Move on to the next letter of the alphabet.
This algorithm will require maximum patience and a sufficient amount of time from you. But after you achieve the result, you will immediately understand how much your handwriting has changed in a positive direction.
Here's how you can quickly learn to write beautifully
- You need to perform the same actions of the first four points that are indicated in the algorithm described above: prepare a workplace, sit at the table, taking the correct posture, put a blank sheet of paper in front of you, take a pen.
- Ask a friend or relative to help you. He needs to take any text and dictate to you at a fast pace.
- You must have time to take dictation and, most importantly, try to do it as beautifully as possible.
After just a couple of such dictations, you will notice an improvement in your handwriting. But remember - you need to write as quickly and beautifully as possible.
A few more tips for those who want to help their child develop beautiful handwriting
- Prepare a workplace for your child. There should be nothing superfluous on the table, only pens, sheets of paper, samples of the alphabet.
- Place your child on a chair, paying attention to his posture and his elbows, which should be on the table.
- Ideally, your child will learn with a children's script, where he can practice by looking at sample letters.
- If you do not have the opportunity to purchase a copybook, you can draw a few samples for your child yourself. For example, first draw ideally shaped geometric shapes. Your child should draw each of the shapes until it looks like the example.
- Provide your child with a sample of the first few letters of the alphabet in “exploded form,” that is, divide the letter into 2-3 parts and have your child write each of them separately.
- Make a pattern of the first few whole letters of the alphabet. Show your child how to write the letter correctly. However, your writing speed should be very slow.
Of course, the algorithm just described will take a lot of time, but if your child agrees to learn, be patient and go for it.
As you understand, learning or teaching to write beautifully is not an easy task. And it’s not enough to learn how to learn to write in beautiful handwriting, the most important thing is whether you can bring these ideas to life?
Good luck in your work on yourself!
Personality and signature
In most cases, a person’s signature and writing style are individual and different from others. They carry information about personally-identifiable characteristics belonging to a specific person. They are used for personal identification and character recognition. Handwriting examination also helps to find out the following facts: in what state the person signed, under pressure from others or of his own free will, in non-standard conditions or in normal circumstances, with his real handwriting or an altered writing style. During the procedure, experts study samples of a person's handwriting and signature, paying special attention to the pace of writing, the shape of letters, direction and slope, pressure and elaboration of lines. Transcription and coherence of handwriting are of great importance in identifying the person on whose behalf the documents were allegedly signed.
Pressure
Particular attention is paid to what handwriting says about a person, if the pressure of a pen or pencil can be completely different for the same person. You should know that pressure is a characteristic of a real emotional state:
- Strong pressure of the writing object on the paper guarantees emotional constancy and stability in all sensations.
- Light pressure shows the owner as a person who is easily influenced by others. Typically, such people choose an intellectual sphere of activity for themselves, they are susceptible to other personalities, and there are no deep feelings at all.
The importance of graphology in real life
In real life and communicating with people, a subject such as practical graphology can be very helpful. How to recognize character from handwriting and determine a person’s state of mind? These are the questions that this science answers. Using information about the types of handwriting, the relationship between writing style and a person’s temperament, you can discover many new and interesting factors. Difficulties in talking with a friend will disappear, relationships with family will improve, and your personal life will become brighter and richer. To do this, you need to learn how to correctly use the above information about the various types of handwriting. Then understanding people and finding a common language with them will become much easier.
What cannot be determined by handwriting
Photo: TASS/YAY
Handwriting can say a lot, but not everything. Three main things that handwriting is unlikely to reflect:
- Floor. It is impossible to determine whether a text was written by a man or a woman. However, in graphology there are such concepts as gendered male and female handwriting types. As graphologist Sergei Sergeev noted, the female type is characterized by roundness and archedness, while the male type is characterized by angularity and arcade (the shape of an inverted bowl). At the same time, both women and men can have handwriting that is opposite to their gender. This may indicate a predominance of the masculine principle in a woman’s character (straightforwardness, assertiveness, rationality), and in a man – a feminine one (emotionality, sociability, intuitiveness).
- Profession. It is impossible to determine by handwriting who exactly a person works, but it is possible to identify personal qualities characteristic of a particular field of activity. For example, openness and sociability are characteristic of people of humanitarian professions, restraint and an analytical mindset are characteristic of people of technical specialties. Moreover, both qualities can be successfully used in both options. As a rule, creative people are characterized by fluency in writing, while enterprising people are characterized by a predominance of sharp forms. However, it is very important to take into account other characteristics of handwriting, otherwise the analysis will be superficial.
- Actions. Graphological analysis can only determine the properties and inclinations of a person to certain actions, but not the actions themselves. Handwriting may indicate a tendency to aggression, but not the ability to kill or rob; about sensuality - but not about the ability to kiss the first person you meet.
Expert opinion: why handwriting is useful
Handwriting completely activates different parts of the brain: when writing a text by hand, there is good coordination between the left and right hemispheres. Unlike other methods of transmitting information, it is handwriting that can develop personality. Why is it so important to teach a child this skill in childhood? Because handwriting is a development that is important at the early stage of personality formation.
A person can also continue self-development through handwriting as an adult. When we write on paper, we experience what we have written not only analytically, but also emotionally. When we print, such a synergistic effect does not occur. Printed text can quickly fade from memory, but manuscripts become part of us and remain with us for a long time.
Therefore, creative individuals very often write things down by hand, so it’s easier for them to catch inspiration. Typing text on a computer coarsens our emotional state.
Larisa Drygval
Head of the Center for the Study of Handwriting at the Inessa Goldberg Institute of Graph Analysis, graphologist, candidate of psychological sciences
