Graphology, inference of character from a person’s handwriting. The theory underlying graphology is that handwriting is an expression of personality; hence, a systematic analysis of the way words and letters are formed can reveal traits of personality. Graphologists note such elements as the size of individual letters and the degree and regularity of slanting, ornamentation, angularity, and curvature. Other basic considerations are the general appearance and impression of the writing, the pressure of upward and downward strokes, and the smoothness of the writing. For example, analytic graphologists interpret large handwriting as a sign of ambition and small handwriting as a sign of pedantry.

What is handwriting analysis?

Handwriting analysis, which involves studying someone's handwriting to discover their personality characteristics, is a powerful way to learn about the people in your life. You can get to know anyone better through a sample of their handwriting, or even take a look at your own writing to uncover truths about yourself.

Experts point out that handwriting tests offer valuable insights because they provide a direct, unaltered window into someone’s mind. Bart Baggett, founder of Handwriting University International and author of The Success Secrets of the Rich & Happy  says that “Handwriting is brain-writing,”. “Other personality tests can be ‘gamed’ or ‘influenced’ by answering the questions dishonestly. Since people usually have no idea their handwriting is being analyzed, [a handwriting] personality test is much more accurate and provides more insight than the Myers-Briggs or other personality tests.”

You can uncover someone’s learning style, emotional openness, and other personality traits through handwriting.A person’s handwriting contains many clues to their personality. “More than 100 personality traits can be determined from handwriting,” says Carlson. However, you can start your journey into handwriting analysis with some basic written elements.

What can we learn from handwriting analysis?

Handwriting analysis, which involves studying someone's handwriting to discover their personality characteristics, is a powerful way to learn about the people in your life. You can get to know anyone better through a sample of their handwriting, or even take a look at your own writing to uncover truths about yourself.

How Handwriting Analysis Works?

In the world of forensic analysis, which includes crime scene investigation, DNA testing, fiber analysis, fingerprint analysis, voice identification and narcotics analysis, to name just a few of the disciplines, handwriting analysis fits into the area of questioned documents. Questioned document examiners (QDEs) analyze documents for signs of alteration, forgery and, when sample documents are available, handwriting or typing comparisons to determine or rule out authorship (and/or tie a document to a specific machine in the case of typing). Handwriting analysis is a tedious and methodical process that relies on extensive knowledge of the way people form letters, which characteristics of letter formation are unique and the physiological processes behind writing - the ways in which a person's fine-motor skills can affect his or her handwriting and leave clues about the author's identity.

The primary basis of handwriting analysis as a science is that every person in the world has a unique way of writing. Though at first, we all probably wrote in a similar way to kids of our own age and location. But with the passing of time, those writing characteristics we learned in school - our style characteristics - became only the underlying method of our handwriting. We developed individual characteristics that are unique to us and distinguish our handwriting from someone else's.
First and foremost, handwriting analysts must be able to accurately distinguish between style characteristics and individual characteristics, which takes a lot of training. They can pretty much ignore the style characteristics, which are only useful for determining with a fair degree of certainty which copybook the writer learned from. The individual characteristics are what matter the most in determining authorship.­