Humans have long been fascinated by personality traits and categories. Myers-Briggs, enneagrams, DISC assessments, love languages, the list goes on and on.
Though most of these personality quizzes have only become popular in the past decade or so, the study of handwriting analysis — also known as graphology — has been around for nearly 200 years! Who could forget Sherlock Holmes’s ability to identify the killer’s identity based on a scrap of paper with their handwriting?
This (semi) scientific field analyzes a subject’s handwriting based on its particular slant, letter, word, and line spacing, size, flourishes, and even the way individual letters are shaped. Each trait is correlated with a type of personality and is used to learn more about the writer.
For example, based on information from Handwriting-Graphology, a lower-case letter “a” can be analyzed as follows:
Oval – kind, social, creative
Round – diplomatic, reserved, not trusting
Pointed at the bottom – sensitive, stubborn, not communicative
Pointed at the top – determined, dignified, tenacious
So, are you ready to try to analyze your own handwriting? It’s a fun experiment and you might be surprised by what you uncover!
For more graphology inspiration, check out the infographic from 1stDibs below. They analyzed the handwriting of 12 famous artists ranging in time and style from Leonardo da Vinci to Kehinde Wiley to uncover personality traits behind the names.
Infographic create by and used with permission of 1stDibs.
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Meet The Author
Lindsay Shapka is an avid traveler and the creator of The Anthrotorian — a website dedicated to sharing travel tips, stories about adventures, culture quirks, artists you should know, fascinating bits of history, and more!
She is also an artist, marketing specialist, editor, and freelance writer who has work featured on websites, blogs, and in magazines like National Geographic Traveler.
