Regional handwriting variation

Although people in many parts of the world share common alphabets and numeral systems (variations on the Roman alphabet are used throughout Europe, the Americas, Australia, and much of Africa; the Arabic numeral system is nearly universal), there are sometimes regional variations in how the characters are formed. These variations can be likened to a "regional accent" in handwriting.

There is often a great deal of variation within a given region, depending on the method of penmanship and teaching tools used. Some countries, such as France, have a national copybook. In other countries, such as the United States, the copybook taught at school is decided at the school district level. With greater communication and travel between various regions in modern times, many individuals are exposed to writing from other regions, resulting in greater interchangeability of writing samples between regions.

Arabic numerals

The numerals used by Western countries have two forms. "In-line" or "full-height" form is that used on typewriters and taught in North America, in which all numerals have the same height as the majiscule alphabet. In "old style," numerals 0, 1, and 2 are x-height; numerals 6 and 8 have bowls within x-height, plus ascenders; numerals 3, 5, 7, and 9 have descenders from x-height; and the numeral 4 extends a bit both up and down from x-height. Old-style numerals are often used by British presses, which sometimes results in confusion because of the numberal 1's resemblance to a shortened majiscule letter "I". Aside from these two main forms, other regional variations abound.

The numeral 0 - many programmers and some mathematicians put a diagonal slash through the zero to distinguish it from the letter O. However, some programmers, who assumed the numeral would be used more frequently than the letter, so they slashed the letter instead. Both of these practices are confusing to speakers of Scandinavian languages containing the letter "Ø", and they prefer to place a dot in the center of zeros.

The numeral 1 - In China and parts of Europe, this numeral is written with a short line at the top extending downward and to the left, as seen in serif typefaces such as Times Roman. People in some parts of Europe extend this serif nearly the whole distance to the baseline. It is sometimes - but less frequently - written with horizontal serifs at the base; without them it can resemble the common North American 7, which has a near-vertical stroke without a crossbar, and a shorter horizontal top stroke. In North America, the numeral 1 is usually written as a plain vertical line.

The numeral 4 - some people leave the top "open" -- all the lines are vertical or horizontal, like the Seven segment display. This makes it easier to distinguish from the numeral 9.

The numeral 7 - In China this numeral is commonly written with a serif descending from the top horizontal, and no crossbar through the middle. In North America is it usually written with just two strokes, the top horizontal and the (usually angled) vertical. Schools run by the Roman Catholic Church have traditionally taught that a short horizontal bar should cross the vertical in the middle, to distinguish the seven from a numeral one with a long initial stroke and no underserif. This form is used commonly in Germany abd France, and sporadically in the United States. It is not crossed this way in Japan.

The numeral 9 - In parts of Europe, this numeral is written with the vertical ending in a hook at the bottom. This version resembles how the lowercase letter g is commonly written. In North America and elsewhere, the usual shape is to draw the vertical straight to the baseline.

The Roman alphabet

The letter g - The lowercase letter g has a wide variety of shapes.

The letter S - In Japan, this letter is often written with a single serif added to the end of the stroke. In North America, it is rarely written with serifs.

The letter Z - In North America and China this letter is usually written with three strokes. In parts of Europe it is commonly written with a short horizontal crossbar added through the middle. This version is sometimes preferred in mathematics in other regions, to help distinguish it from the numeral 2. In Japan it is often written with a short diagonal crossbar through the middle.