50 Examples Of Handwriting That Look Unreal (New Pics)

Pen Heaven’s survey in the UK has found that 51.4% of participants still write by hand every day, while 21.4% jot down some words on paper at least once a week. On the other hand, 16.5% of people couldn’t remember the last time they picked up a pen to write something. 

When it comes to gender and age, those who wrote more regularly were younger women aged 18-24. Overall, men are less likely to pick up a pen, while just 39.5% of 65-year-olds and older practice calligraphy.

43% of those who prefer handwriting rated their penmanship as above average, and more than 30% of people felt like their skill still needed some work. Just 13.9% of respondents thought their writing was excellent, whereas 16.5% believed it to be terrible. In general, women evaluated their handwriting more enthusiastically than men. 

Studies have confirmed the fact that females have neater handwriting than males. University of Warwick researchers have noted that “Girls are generally better handwriters than boys, both on measures of overall quality and of letter formation. Girls also tend to write faster than boys.”

Why this happens is quite hard to explain, as there’s really no concrete evidence or reason why women’s handwriting looks more satisfying to the eye than men’s. It could be due to stereotypes in our society, as women are often expected to have neater handwriting.

There’s also the possibility that neurodevelopmental differences between males and females may account for the differences.

Parenting Magazine explains this further: “During the early school years, when kids are learning to shape letters, the nerve fibers that control fine motor skills in boys’ brains typically haven’t matured as much as girls’ have. 

So the girls in your son’s class may be better equipped to conquer penmanship. Boys’ brains eventually catch up and their handwriting gets better than their early attempts, but it’s still usually not as neat as that of the girl at the next desk. That’s because women tend to have more nerve connections between the two sides of the brain, which also helps with precision.”

While some argue that penmanship might be getting worse due to less practice and schools slowly taking out cursive and calligraphy lessons from their curricula, others say that bad handwriting isn’t a new phenomenon at all. Even in the ages when people handwrote books, illegible writing was a problem. They even had a word for it: cacography, calligraphy’s opposite, evil sibling.

“Handwriting has not worsened because of technology, but rather it has evolved in accordance with our life experiences and the passage of time,” explains forensic graphologist Ana Ortiz de Obregón.

“Although we now write less by hand, a person who knows how to write always knows how to write. It is like riding a bicycle. At first you are more careful to make the handwriting more esthetic, but as you write, the conscious gives way to the unconscious; the act of writing becomes mechanized and that is when the brain begins to draw a self-portrait on paper, detectable from a graphological point of view.”

So it’s not the lack of practice that might worsen our penmanship, but other external factors like rushing, our state of mind or mood, or even certain disorders.

The way we write can also be hugely attributed to our personality. Even the way we dot our i's and cross our t’s can say more about us than we might realize. “Like body language, handwriting is analyzed in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of a person’s behavior, motivations or personality,” says Annette Poizner, a certified graphologist, registered social worker and licensed psychotherapist. “But unlike nonverbal gestures, handwriting leaves a trace, making it possible to examine at any time or place.”

“People write in unique and idiosyncratic ways, so it would make sense that those characteristic swirls or scratchings may be expressing facets of the writer’s individuality and personality,” Poizner further explains. “But properly trained graphologists know that handwriting analysis is more art than science, and any insights they glean from someone’s handwriting must be confirmed by the writers themselves.”

There are many distinctive characteristics in a person’s writing, such as:

1. Heavy vs. soft pen pressure
2. Larger vs. smaller letters
3. Lines that go downhill, uphill, or in a straight line
4. Words slanted to the right vs. the left
5. How one crosses their T
6. How one dots their lowercase i
7. The space one leaves between words
8. Wide vs. narrow loop on a lowercase L
9. Rounded vs. pointed letters
10. Uniform vs inconsistent size of letters
11. Slow and deliberate writing vs. rushed
12. Connected vs disconnected letters
13. Open vs. closed O
14. A changing slant

“When there’s too much variability in a person’s writing, there may also be chaotic elements in their personality,” says Poizner. “Someone who charges forth and then throws on the brakes suddenly, [causing] whiplash.” In some cases, it could also be influenced by disorders like ADHD, which can impede fine motor skills and functions like planning, organization, focus, and attention.