Backtrack-Free Cursive

Post by NuclearPM » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

tsunagatta wrote: post #98

NoGravitas wrote: post #90

As a USAian and an Old, I learned the Zaner-Bloser script in school - a cursive script that tries to minimize pen lifts, but still has "backtracks" as this article calls them, for j, i, and x. It uses a lot of the same kind of loops that this script uses, just for the simpler problem of joins. The downside of the Zaner-Bloser system, as well as Palmer and anything that derives from Spencerian cursive, is that when wr…

Interestingly I had the opposite journey, I am a Young so they didn't bother to teach me cursive in school, so in high school when I got into fountain pens I taught myself italic hand so that my handwriting would be more legible and easier to write with it -- but just recently I got tired of the two-stroke 'e' and taught myself Zaner-Bloser instead, lol. I do definitely see the drawbacks you mentioned though, after I…

Post by golem14 » Mon, Jul 13, 2026, 11:13 PM UTC

kqr wrote: post #50

golem14 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a rabbithole ;) TIL about "Stiefography". I wonder how useful this is. I remember math lectures - typically, our prof used the white^H^H^H^H^Hchalkboard, so I could just write down things fast enough. There is evidence that typing is actively bad for memory rentention compared to writing things down with a pen. I wonder where Stenography falls in this continuum.

Depends on how it is used! Recording speech nearly verbatim is bad for retention; summarising in own words along the way is good for retention. Longhand forces summarisation, but it's still possible with shorthand.

Post by jimmydddd » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 3:18 AM UTC

NoGravitas wrote: post #90

As a USAian and an Old, I learned the Zaner-Bloser script in school - a cursive script that tries to minimize pen lifts, but still has "backtracks" as this article calls them, for j, i, and x. It uses a lot of the same kind of loops that this script uses, just for the simpler problem of joins. The downside of the Zaner-Bloser system, as well as Palmer and anything that derives from Spencerian cursive, is that when wr…

Post by zczc » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 6:28 AM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #59

zczc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In school-taught cursive, the uppercase A is written with a single stroke, but the upper element in Б, Г, Т and others need a separate stroke. The full alphabet sheet: https://upload-995750d0fd20690d889c7a976af524b6.hb.bizmrg.co...

Do you start with the top stroke so that the bottom stroke can continue into the rest of the word, or do you start with the bottom stroke and handle the top later?

Post by imglorp » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 10:36 AM UTC

jimmydddd wrote: post #125

NoGravitas wrote: post #90

As a USAian and an Old, I learned the Zaner-Bloser script in school - a cursive script that tries to minimize pen lifts, but still has "backtracks" as this article calls them, for j, i, and x. It uses a lot of the same kind of loops that this script uses, just for the simpler problem of joins. The downside of the Zaner-Bloser system, as well as Palmer and anything that derives from Spencerian cursive, is that when wr…

I'm a lefty, so fountain and liquid ink are out due to smudging. Unless I use a hook grip (also known as overwriting). Which, come to think of it, was probably why I was so bad at taking notes until notebook computers came around.