Genuine handwriting variations in 10 years: a pilot study

Abstract

Background: The present study aims to examine the extent of variation in genuine handwriting characteristics across 10 years. One hundred samples (one admitted handwriting and three exemplars) were collected from 25 subjects (male and female, age ranging from 30 to 55) using purposive sampling technique. The admitted handwriting sample included documents like notebooks, wills, diaries, and record books that had been written 10years earlier, and 3 exemplars with the same information, written now in a similar kind of material. Both individual and class characteristics were analyzed in admitted as well as three exemplars which includes size of letters, slant, i-dot, t-bar (diacritics), humped letters (m, n, h), and formation of rounded letters (o, a, d, b, g, p, q). Results: Cohen’s kappa showed that there is a significant agreement between admitted and exemplars in the characteristics except for size. Conclusion: The results imply that once an adult has acquired a particular handwriting pattern, the master pattern of each letter, as well as both class and individual characteristics, remain unchanged. The size of the letters may change across age.