Glossary
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HANDWRITING
Movement
Model
Circumstances
Repairs
Glossary
Ascender
A part of a lower case letter that rises above the midline.
Ascender line
A horizontal line that marks the height of ascenders.
Bar
A horizontal line, as in the letters f and t.
Baseline
A horizontal line the most letters rest on.
Body
The parts of a letter between the baseline and midline.
Bowl
A curved shape that encloses a space in a character.
Capital line
A horizontal line that marks the height of capitals.
Chancery cursive
A style of writing used for documents in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. This sample is from Arrighi’s
Operina.
Counter
White space inside a letter.
Cursive
Any joined writing. Sometimes also unjoined letters that
resemble writing.
Descender
The part of letters that go below the baseline.
Descender line
A horizontal line that marks the depth of descenders.
Exit stroke
A part of a letter that starts a join to the following
letter.
Join
A line that connects two letters.
Looped cursive
Various handwriting models, losely based on copperplate
script.
Midline
A horizontal line that marks the top of lower case letters
without ascenders.
Print
script
Unjoined writing, based on ellipses and straight lines,
usually upright.
Stem
An upright line in a letter.
Stroke
A single mark made with a pen.
