History of Handwriting

Before there was handwriting there was only verbal communication. Eventually systems of pictures were created. The Sumerians then began writing on scribes and later the Phoenicians created the first alphabet consisting of 22 symbols. The Celtics style of writing involved writing the letters in 1 inch square guides(unicals). Also in Charlemagne standardized writing they used both lower case and upper case letters (upper case used to start sentences). Around 900AD the Gothic style was introduced and it was very thick, angular, and tightly set, in order to save space. There was a common strict style and also a style that was more precise and artistic for important text. In the 10th century, the letter 'u' was created separately from 'v'. In the 12th century the 'w' was created in order to accommodate European languages and in the 15th century the 'j' was created. Then in the mid 1400's Gutenberg created the movable type press and in the late 1500's Robert Granjon designed type faces that resembled script writing. Around the mid 1700's people were able to go to school for penmanship and this showed a high social status. Charles Zanar and Elmer Bloser created materials and tools to teach good penmanship in the mid 1800's and then in 1904 the Method of Arm Movement was developed to help with elementary school children's handwriting. Lastly there was the D'Nealian style which uses slanted letters in order for children to transition into cursive easier.

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