# Handwriting script

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{{Short description|Style of handwriting}}
{{About|generic style of handwriting|personal style of writing|Handwriting|a typeface that imitates handwriting|Script typeface}}

A '''script''' or '''handwriting script''' is a formal, generic style of handwriting (as opposed to personal handwriting), within a [writing system](/source/writing_system). A '''hand''' may be a synonym or a  variation, a subset of script.<ref>[https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/archival-skills/palaeography Archival Skills: Palaeography]</ref>

There is a variety of historical styles in manuscript documents,<ref>[https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/types-script Types of Script, Harvard's Geoffrey Chaucer Website]</ref> Some of them belonging to [calligraphy](/source/calligraphy),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Pin |chapter=Calligraphy and Painting |date=2023 |editor-last=Shei |editor-first=Chris |doi=10.4324/9780367565152-RECHS4-1 |editor-last2=Wang |editor-first2=Bo}}</ref> whereas some were set up for better readability, utility or teaching ([teaching script](/source/teaching_script)).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/29/germany-teachers-handwriting-schools-schreibschrift | title=German teachers campaign to simplify handwriting in schools | newspaper=The Guardian | date=29 June 2011 | last1=Pidd | first1=Helen }}</ref> see [History of the Latin script](/source/History_of_the_Latin_script).

Historic styles of handwriting may be studied by [palaeography](/source/palaeography).

Personal variations and idiosyncrasies in writing style departing from the standard hand, which may for example allow the work of a particular [scribe](/source/scribe) copying or writing a [manuscript](/source/manuscript) to be identified, are described by the term [handwriting](/source/handwriting) (or hand).

thumb|300px|The evolution of the minuscule Latin hand

==List of hands==
*[Chancery hand](/source/Chancery_hand)
*[Round hand](/source/Round_hand)
*[Secretary hand](/source/Secretary_hand)
*[Court hand](/source/Court_hand)
*[Library hand](/source/Library_hand)
*[Blackletter](/source/Blackletter)
*[Humanist minuscule](/source/Humanist_minuscule)
*[Carolingian minuscule](/source/Carolingian_minuscule)
*[Roman cursive](/source/Roman_cursive)
*[Uncial script](/source/Uncial_script)
*[Insular script](/source/Insular_script)
*[Beneventan script](/source/Beneventan_script)
*[Visigothic script](/source/Visigothic_script)
*[Merovingian script](/source/Merovingian_script)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book | last=Florey | first=K.B. | title=Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting | publisher=Melville House | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-61219-305-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c7CRrquqifEC | access-date=2024-06-16}}
* {{cite book | last=Douglas | first=A. | title=Work in Hand: Script, Print, and Writing, 1690-1840 | publisher=OUP Oxford | series=Oxford Textual Perspectives | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-19-250621-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UN4-DgAAQBAJ | access-date=2024-06-16}}
* {{cite book | last=Thornton | first=T.P. | title=Handwriting in America: A Cultural History | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1996 | isbn=978-0-300-07441-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g5cHxU9EXjkC | access-date=2024-06-16}}

Category:Palaeography
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Category:Penmanship
Category:Graphology
Category:Questioned document examination

{{writingsystem-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Handwriting script](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handwriting_script) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handwriting_script?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.