Regional handwriting variation

Different societies write the same thing different, this is often something like a "foreign accent" in handwriting.

Chinese and Taiwanese

• numeral 1 with 'hat' to the left, and with or without a lower base bar like the lower half of I. (Without the lower base, the hatted-1 can be mistaken for the North American 7.)
• numeral 7 with bang on the left edge of the horizontal bar. It is not crossed.
• Occassionally I is written without the upper and lower bars.
• Z is not crossed, except in mathematics.

Many Europeans:

• write numeral 1 with 'hat'
• write numeral 9 like lowercase g (Arial-style)

Many Slavs:

• write 'a' clockwise

Japanese:

• never cross 7

Crossed 7s used to be taught at schools run by the Roman Catholic Church.

Copybook that is used

The copybook that is taught, varies from country to country. 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.

Dubay-Getty, for example, is taught at Portland Schools. Loops and Sticks, is usually taught to individuals at schools which have Learning Disabilities. Spencer Penmanship is taught at one private school, in Illinois.

(Add graphical images of the various copybooks.)

See Also

   Alphabet

or, for more history.

   Aramaic alphabet
   Cyrillic alphabet
   Ethiopic alphabet
   Etruscan alphabet
   Greek alphabet
   Hebrew alphabet
   Latin alphabet
   Old Turkic alphabet
   Rotokas alphabet