Emoticons and personalized signatures are now an integral part of our communication. Our every emotion and mood can be effectively conveyed with the use of colours, fonts and icons. All these tools are used for conscious projection of our personality.
Handwriting belongs to this same family of communication means. It displays our personality traits through various factors such as size, slant, zones, margin size, pressure and distinctive letter formations.
Have you ever noticed how you reacted to a friend's writing on a birthday card? Was the script large, slanting rightwards, perhaps colourful? Maybe this friend also used several exclamations and doodles to make it look more interesting. Without even knowing it, you would have smiled to yourself and thought how outgoing and fun-loving this friend was.
Now let us examine another imaginary card, from a more serious-minded friend. Is the lettering smaller in size? Evenly spaced, neat and legible? Do the letters appear upright, following an imaginary, straight baseline? Here, you may have instantly recalled this friend's intelligence, focus and independence.
You may have just realized how each of us analyzes handwriting to some extent or the other. The professional graphologist takes this intuitive response to a greater level. Extensive study, measurement and analysis of numerous factors of handwriting help in building up a comprehensive personality profile of the writer.
If you would like to get a better understanding of how this concept works, consider this: Imagine a person walking into a party. Let this person be tastefully dressed in the trendiest clothes, confident and impressive. Suppose this person smiles at everyone, but shortly joins up with her clique of close friends. She may pass witty comments and laugh engagingly at others' jokes. What kind of writing do you think this person would have? Wouldn't it surprise you if you were told that she has an untidy scrawl, where the words run into one another, presenting an overall picture of messy, confused smudges? It is more likely that you are picturing a neat, classy script, slanting forward moderately, with lots of “garlands” or curves joining the letters together. Correct? This is because at some subconscious level, you may have already noticed the “consistency” of a person's personality. Leaving aside deliberate pretensions, a person tends to project the same personality through all means of communication. The way in which he approaches his spatial area (as the room in the above example) is very akin to way he approaches a blank piece of paper.
The margins, word and letter spacing represent “boundaries”. A narrow left margin may indicate a person who is attached to his past. Narrow right margins would show an eagerness to embrace the future.
The letters themselves are divided into three “zones”. The upper zone corresponds to the “spirit” and intellectual aspects, the middle zone to the “mind”, day-to-day and emotional aspects while the lower zone corresponds to the “body', physical drives and vitality.
Have you noticed how your boyfriend joins his letters? Do his letter connectors, beginning and ending strokes appear cup shaped, curved at the bottom and open at the top? If they do, then you are in luck. These “Garlands” are indicative of warm, sentimental and caring people. If his writing appears predominantly thread-like, unwinding or tapering towards the end of letters and words, then you better be careful. He is more likely to be evasive and it will be harder to get him to make any firm commitments.
The slant of the writing is indicative of how he/she prefers to interact with the world. Left slanting writing indicates a more reserved or introverted nature. Right slanting writing shows a more outgoing or extrovert nature. Upright writing usually displays an independent personality.
Space between letters indicates extent of thrift and tension. Space between words shows how the person handles “distance” with others. For example, well spaced writing indicates someone who respects others' space and privacy. Space between lines displays the sense of organization.
Pressure measures vitality and physical strength. It is influenced by the health, energy and emotional state of the writer and can change from sample to sample.
The body of a writing sample is more representative of a person, than his signature. The signature is his conscious projection to the world and is the image he would like the world to have of him. Age, sex, gender, left or right-handedness and nationality cannot be determined from handwriting. A graphologist should be given this information beforehand. Handwriting analysis is not a fortune-telling tool. It does not predict your future. Handwriting analysis helps to understand the writer's personality with a greater depth and clarity. This understanding can then be used for self-improvement, personality development, vocational guidance, relationship counselling, etc... Some companies choose to use handwriting analysis as a recruitment tool. It can be used to gauge the extent to which the applicant's traits match those required of the job profile.
It is important to remember that graphology is an extensive science, requiring some serious study. In some ways, it is also an art, as it is important to take a holistic approach to the writing. The overall nature of the writing must be taken into account, before drawing any conclusions. Matching traits to a single “observation” or “sign” can be misleading.
However, the next time you look at a piece of writing, you will probably pay greater attention and gain more insights into the writer's personality.
