Penmanship is not just how you handle a pen and paper, taking down a couple of notes, and calling it a day. To many, it is an art form, a skill that is perhaps vanishing all together considering the almost sole use of computers during this day and age.
Many museums have kept records of scripts covered in ancient calligraphy from around the world, revering them as priceless artifacts. In reference to age-old Arabic handwriting, the Metropolitan Museum of Art defines calligraphy as a “harmonious proportion of both letters within a word and words on a page.”
Although this lost skill is one to be respected, it can also be deeply analyzed. According to Kathi McKnight, a master graphologist, interviewed by Business Insider, the way you write, down to the smallest of details, can say a lot about you. “Just from analyzing your handwriting, experts can find over 5,000 personality traits,” she says. Below are 20 mind-blowing examples of flawless handwriting that’ll get you practicing in no time.
1. The handwriting of this 8th-grade student from Nepal is enough to make you do a double take. His perfectly consistent lettering looks like it was typed up on a computer, italics and all.
2. This insanely intricate calendar was handmade by somebody’s grandmother. She makes one annually and clearly can handle a pencil. Her illustrations and penmanship are so detailed, they beat out the printed ones.
3. Professor perfect? This teacher from the Philippines gives everyone in class a run for their money. He perfectly lines up every sentence and draws out flawless shapes like it’s straight out of the textbook.
4. This musician writes sheet music by hand using charcoal. He does such a good job with his precision, the symbols might as well be stamped on there! This song, he says, is entitled Canon In D by Pachelbel.
5. This student takes studying to the next level with their amazingly accurate drawings and notes of the human anatomy. If you’re gonna borrow notes from anyone, this is your guy!
6. Copperplate, a classic style of calligraphic writing, has always been hard to master. This man, however, killed his surreal version of Pablo Neruda’s Sonnet Seventeen, a beautiful Spanish love poem.
7. Jose Naranja is a professional bookbinder who makes his own travel diaries and shares them online. Not only is his handwriting incomparable and interesting but its paired with colorful and intricate hand-drawn images that illustrate his journeys perfectly.
8. Sometimes simple is better. This blackboard sign for Tacos found in Bristol, United Kingdom, struck a chord with a passer-by who felt the rounded font was particularly satisfying to read.
9. A tongue twister turned itself into a beautifully written message thanks to a man practicing his cursive. “How much would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” are the immaculately jotted words that came out of it.
10. Everyone’s been a victim of having to create a crowded one-paged cheat sheet, but no one’s done it quite like this. Odds are, this student is passing with flying colors with their exceptionally well-organized note-taking skills.
11. This person’s grandfather wrote a cute birthday wish for his grandson with the most unique and cool penmanship. Each of his letters looks like they are meant to form the title of a modern Sci-Fi flick, and it’s awesome.
12. This person not only mastered a gorgeous curved font but added a special combination of illustration and writing with a Raven embodying the word “nevermore,” to end off the poem.
13. This student deserves an A+, not only for their test answers but for their amazingly uniform bubbled print handwriting. Their style is so consistent, it reads very well and looks sublimely organized, worthy of a high grade.
14. Another note-taker for the books, right here. This person proves that flawless calligraphy is not necessarily just cursive, the detached letters are still super gratifying to read regardless of their informality.
15. Who wouldn’t want to receive a beautiful handwritten note like this one? It looks like it was pulled straight out of a hundred-year-old novel, written with an old-school ink and pen.
16. This person snapped a photo of their friend’s philosophy notes, and they’re quite impressive. Most fonts are clearly distinguishable between cursive and print, but not this one. These words look like a perfect mix of both and even seem like they’ve been edited digitally.
17. These contradictory words, written together beautifully, were found not as the title on the cover of a book but scribbled on the beige wall of a public restroom in Berkeley.
18. If you don’t go into this diner for the food, go in for the sign. Their specials, written in pink marker on a small whiteboard in the restaurant, are pristine and make the best menu.
19. From first glance, these marks seem like illegible scribbles scattered line by line on the squared paper. After taking a closer look, the words become clearer and the penmanship becomes increasingly impressive thanks to its unique style that goes perfectly with the rest of the lab notes.
20. An accident? Maybe so, but this perfect checkmark looks like it was printed with the form. The exemplary tick seems as though it was placed there on purpose as an example, not just a happy mistake.
