Penmanship in the context of Cursive Greek

Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and modern-day usage across languages and regions; being used both publicly in artistic and formal documents as well as in private communication. Formal cursive is generally joined, but casual cursive is a combination of joins and pen lifts. The writing style can be further divided as "looped", "italic", or "connected".

The cursive method is used with many alphabets due to infrequent pen lifting which allows increased writing speed. However, more elaborate or ornamental calligraphic styles of writing can be slower to reproduce. In some alphabets, many or all letters in a word are connected, sometimes making a word one single complex stroke.

Palaeography (UK) or paleography (US) (ultimately from Ancient Greek: παλαιός, palaiós, 'old', and γράφειν, gráphein, 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of historical writing systems. It encompasses the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, as well as the analysis of historic penmanship, handwriting scripts, signification, and printed media.

It is primarily concerned with the forms, processes, and relationships of writing and printing systems as evident in a text, document, or manuscript — analysis of the substantive textual content of documents is a secondary function. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating manuscripts, and the cultural and technical context of writing systems, including the methods by which texts (such as manuscripts, books, codices, tracts, and monographs) were produced, and the history of scriptoria. Palaeography as a discipline is important for understanding, authenticating, and dating historical texts; however, in the absence of additional evidence, it is difficult to use palaeographic means alone to pinpoint exact dates of such texts.

Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of penmanship and calligraphy, in the languages which use the Arabic alphabet or the alphabets derived from it. It is a highly stylized and structured form of handwriting that follows artistic conventions and is often used for Islamic religious texts, architecture, and decoration. It includes Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, and Urdu calligraphy. It is known in Arabic as khatt Arabi (خط عربي), literally meaning "line", "design", or "construction".

The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur'an, as chapters and verses from the Qur'an are a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. Although artistic depictions of people and animals are not explicitly forbidden in the Qur'an, Islamic traditions have often limited figural representation in Islamic religious texts in order to avoid idolatry. Some scholars argue that Kufic script was developed by the late 7th century in Kufa, Iraq, from which it takes its name. This early style later evolved into several forms, including floral, foliated, plaited or interlaced, bordered, and square Kufic. In the ancient world, though, artists sometimes circumvented aniconic prohibitions by creating intricate calligraphic compositions that formed shapes and figures using tiny script. Calligraphy was a valued art form, and was regarded as both an aesthetic and moral pursuit. An ancient Arabic proverb illustrates this point by emphatically stating that "purity of writing is purity of the soul."

A chancery or chancellery (Latin: cancellaria) is a medieval writing office, responsible for the production of official documents. The title of chancellor, for the head of the office, came to be held by important ministers in a number of states, and remains the title of the heads of government in modern Germany and Austria. Chancery hand is a term for various types of handwriting associated with chanceries.

Western calligraphy is the art of writing and penmanshipas practiced in the Western world, especially using the Latin alphabet (but also including calligraphic use of the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, as opposed to "Eastern" traditions such as Turko-Perso-Arabic, Chinese or Indian calligraphy).

A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner." The story of writing is one of aesthetic development framed within the technical skills, transmission speed(s) and material limitations of a person, time and place.

The Palmer Method of penmanship instruction was developed and promoted by Austin Palmer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was intended to simplify the earlier "Spencerian method", which had been the main handwriting learning method since the 1840s. The Palmer Method soon became the most popular handwriting system in the United States.

Under the method, students were taught to adopt a uniform system of cursive writing with rhythmic elliptical motions.

In European and West Asian typography and penmanship, the baseline is the line upon which most letters sit and below which descenders extend.

In the example to the right, the letter 'p' has a descender; the other letters sit on the (red) baseline.

A teaching script is a sample script that serves as a visual orientation for learning to write by hand. In the sense of a guideline or a prototype, it supports the demanding process of developing handwriting skills and abilities in a visual and illustrative way.

Teaching scripts are represented as alphabets (upper and lower case letters), which are generally accompanied by numbers and punctuation marks. For detailed information on the execution of movements and the design of individual letters and their incorporation into words, various learning materials such as writing exercise sheets or corresponding exercise books are usually provided.

Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy based on the Arabic alphabet. It is known in Arabic as khatt (Arabic: خَطّ), derived from the words 'line', 'design', or 'construction'. Kufic is the oldest form of the Arabic script.

From an artistic point of view, Arabic calligraphy has been known and appreciated for its diversity and great potential for development. In fact, it has been linked in Arabic culture to various fields such as religion, art, architecture, education and craftsmanship, which in turn have played an important role in its advancement.

A copybook, or copy book, is a book used in education that contains examples of handwriting and blank space for learners to imitate.

Typical uses include teaching penmanship and arithmetic to students. A page of a copybook typically starts with a copybook heading: a printed example of what should be copied, such as a single letter or a short proverb. The remainder of the page is blank, aside from horizontal lines. The student is expected to copy the example repeatedly down the page. By copying, the student is supposed to practise penmanship, spelling, reading comprehension, punctuation, and vocabulary.

Austin Norman Palmer (December 22, 1860 – November 16, 1927) was an American innovator in the field of penmanship whose development and widespread distribution of the Palmer Method of handwriting had a great influence on the handwriting of the American education systems. In the early 20th century, Palmer's method of handwriting came on the tail of nearly a half-century of ornamental writing and offered a more simplified, fast, legible, and economic form of writing for the youth and business people of the day.

As a young boy, Palmer worked his way through G. A. Gaskell's penmanship school as a janitor and chore boy. After completing his penmanship education he secured a role as a penmanship instructor in Samuel A. Goodyear's Business School at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After some time, Palmer was able to secure an interest in the school upon Mr. Goodyear's departure and operate it as his own, solidifying a lifelong association between A. N. Palmer and the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.