This might be a highly unusual topic here but where else to ask if not at my favourite Steam community. I'm about to write a letter, it's been more than 15 years since I wrote one, heck, it's been over 10 years since I wrote anything. My handwriting was always bad, to the point where no one could read it and it just looked terrible. Slowly over the course of years, and at University having everything in digital form, I completely stopped writing things down. Couple days ago I received a letter and having something tangible in my hands made me feel nostalgic. I decided to write one back.

And here it comes. I couldn't write anything in cursive, I actually had to look up how individual letters look. Simple question for you, guys. Which one is easier to read, if any, and which one would look better for a letter.

btw. I'm lefty, not like it has much to do with it, but I always used it as an excuse :)
edit: I'm an idiot, I forgot to upload a

View attached image.
8 years ago*

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Which one looks better?

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Print
Cursive

I haven't seen handwritten cursive for years! I forgot it even existed :P

8 years ago
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I was forced to write in cursive for 9 years in the elementary school. It was utter hell and suffering. They often forced me to re-write stuff because it was illegible. Haven't written a single word in cursive since then, switching to print I was writing faster and other people actually could read it. Fuck you, elementary school teachers.

I got dysgraphia and while that might make some teachers care now, in the 90s nobody gave a damn.

8 years ago*
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uppercase print, all the time 👌

8 years ago
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I'm finding your print a bit hard to read, while I had no issues with your cursive. Take this with a grain of salt since my handwriting is atrocious...

View attached image.
8 years ago
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8 years ago
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Thank you all for comments and honesty. I'm well aware my handwriting is atrocious. Now, to answer your questions.
Why all caps-lock in print version? That's the only one I know, I really don't know how to write lower case letters in print.
The letter I'm about to write is for someone very dear to me and it would be nice if the person could actually be able to read it.
It is hard to judge your own handwriting. I can read both, print is a bit easier.

8 years ago
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I moved from cursive to print at some point during my early teen years and never regreted it. My cursive was barely understandable even for me, my print isn't great but at least people can read it without issue most of the time.

8 years ago
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you forgot to cross your ts

8 years ago
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i always write in print, so the print is easier to read for me.

8 years ago
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The bottom one looks better, just fix your p, t, r, l letters to make them more distinct. You have good handwriting/don't be discouraged. I used to write cursive until highschool and a teacher made a big fuss because my letters were stylish but she was too retarded to read it (had no problems with other teachers) so now my letters are more distinct yet boring and less stylish :( Also you should avoid writing most of the time in italics/slanted or just in caps.

8 years ago
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Cursive - looks nicer & it's much easier to read even without crossed Ts ^^

8 years ago
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used to write in cursive all the way to my early time in college, but college lectures changed that, aint nobody got time for cursive.

8 years ago
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It's been years since I could write in cursive.
The only thing I use it for is signing checks.
Everything else gets printed, and really, that's more widely accepted these days, it seems.

8 years ago
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The only thing I use it for is signing checks.

People still use cheques? O.o
:P

View attached image.
8 years ago
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When people write me checks, I just sign them. I don't ask questions. :X
I'm a carpenter sub-contractor on the side, and they often write me checks.

8 years ago
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Your story sounds kind of like mine.

I've never been able to have legible handwriting in print, with most of my letters malformed and looking like smudged chicken scratch (mainly because the unfortunate effect of being left-handed is that you drag your hand over everything you write, smudging it all over the place - and writing in a spiral notebook is absolute hell, which is why I turn everything upside down and use binders/notebooks right-to-left, holes on the right; you should too). The black marks on the karate-chop side of your hand are a pain only we know.

So I write almost entirely in cursive and use a pen for everything. It's far more legible, although because I only started re-using cursive in high-school after too many teachers gave me zeroes for illegible work, plenty of my letters are "wrong" and not standard cursive, like my f's and b's and nearly all my uppercase letters. I also keep writing o like a.

So keep at it, cursive is far easier to write than print for me (and might be for you - besides yours is already looking pretty good), letter spacing is typically more consistent, and you don't have to connect every single letter - it's okay to make breaks here and there, makes writing long words easier if you let the cursive be freeform rather than strict.

This post is getting way too long, I'll just leave you with a writing sample.

http://i.imgur.com/aEC7Mqp.jpg

8 years ago
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I would go with cursive. I tried reading your print and could not make out words that I could read just fine in cursive.
Some letters you seem t have problems writing in cursive though which makes the handwriting look, I dunno, a bit childish maybe.
Other than that I think it looks better than the print which is a goto for me too to be honest. Because I think it's easier to read in general and probably faster to write.
But as mentioned, I had trouble with some words there while I had no problem reading your cursive.

8 years ago
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You're a lefty? but but, your writing slants to the right... Do you do that turning the paper at an angle thing as you write it that they taught in school? I'm left handed and everything of mine slants leftward, or is without any slant. Weird, I have nothing against it slanting to the right, but knowing that it's from a lefty is making my brain hurt for some weird reason because I can't imagine being able to write like that.

8 years ago
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Here's how I write or used to
I think it's because I used to drag my hand over the ink as lefty, so I "developed" this weird technique to prevent it.

View attached image.
8 years ago
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You have very nice cursive, and with just a little bit of training it could look superb. Have a look online for some Spencerian penmanship, there's plenty of free material available and it'll make a big difference. I remember having some public domain pdf books back in the day that helped a lot.

8 years ago
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I had no idea I could download a book or something to help me with my handwriting. Why didn't I think of it before? Thank you, I'll look into it. I always admired people with nice handwriting. Maybe that's why I gave up writing all together, because mine was always heavily criticised.

8 years ago
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Oh sure.

Here is the classic. It's pretty quick to read and do the exercises, too. It'll teach everything, from which muscles to use (like more chest and upper arm, no fingers or wrist) to the "how-to" of each letter.

The exercises on re-learning how to use the right muscles are great. And using the proper ones make writing much more enjoyable, because the way 99.9% of people do (resting the hand on the paper and writing with fingers) feels awful and tires very quickly. Plus this contributes to solving the writing looking all cramped and ugly.

8 years ago
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Wait, I just re-read the OP and realized you didn't know how to write cursive before? You had to look the letters up? :o Damn, how did you get so good so fast?

A couple of tips though, that I think would already help a lot, especially with readability:

1) Cross your t's, or your "little" almost reads "lillle". Like, proper, horizontal cross, in a separate crossing strike. Which leads us to:

2) Do each word in one single strike, not lifting the pen. Only after the word is complete, come back for the dots over the i's and crossing the t's.

Writing the whole word with one stroke helps not only aesthetics and readability, but it also makes writing much faster and less tiring. Those are very important points for cursive. Lifting the pen after each letter is a big waste of time and effort.

3) Extend your long strokes (particularly the upward ones). Letters like the t and the l (non-capital L) need to be much longer, to differentiate them more from the low letters. Same with the low strokes (a longer leg for the "p", for example).

Have fun with it! It's awesome.

8 years ago
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Thanks again, I really appreciate it.
I was taught cursive when I was a kid, like 7 or so, and apparently it was so bad I was told to use rather print, that was bad as well, so I sticked with capitalised print, which was the fastest and suited my needs later on. The reason I had to look the letters up was because it was over 20 years ago and I don't see cursive anywhere these days, so I forgot how it actually looks.

8 years ago
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In your exceptional case, I find your cursive easier to read. For some reason when you write in print you leave pretty big spaces inside the letters.
Although your "t"s are missing the horizontal line.

8 years ago
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i find your cursive easier to read as well,but i feel your pain every time i have to fill out an auto loan or something i almost forget how to write,last time i wrote a letter i just typed and printed it and signed the bottom lol.

8 years ago
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it always depends on the person. i'd say in general print is safe to say but in your case i like the cursive better :)

8 years ago
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View attached image.
8 years ago
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