For convenience in differentiation, handwritings are divided into the following classes. Practically every type of writing can be placed in one of them.

Vertical Hand.—A vertical hand is one in which the tops and tails of letters form as nearly as possible a perpendicular with the horizontal line. The best example of this class of handwriting is that known as the Civil Service hand, familiar to the general public through telegrams and official documents.

Back Hand is a hand in which the general slope of the characters is from right to left.

Italian Hand is the reverse of a back hand, the slope being at an acute angle from left to right. It is a style fast going out of fashion, and is almost invariably the handwriting used by elderly ladies. Its most pronounced characteristic is its sharp angles and absence of curves.

Open Hand.—An open hand is one that generally approximates to the vertical, its distinguishing feature being the wide space between the letters. The best example of it is that known as the Cusack style of writing.

Closed Hand.—A closed hand is the opposite of an open hand, the letters being crowded together and generally long and narrow, with the slope from left to right.

Greek Hand.—This is the name given to a type of writing that closely approximates to the printed character. Many letters, both capital and small, are formed to imitate print, particularly the capitals T, X, Y, R, B, D, and the smalls e, f, g, h, j, k, p, r, t, v, w, x, y, z. It is a hand frequently found in the writings of classical scholars, literary men engaged in work entailing careful research, and often is an evidence of short sight.

The Wavy Hand is generally vertical. Its characteristic is an undulating serpentine waviness. Little or no distinction is made between barred or looped letters. There are no rounded shoulders to the m and n and the word minnie would be written by five small u's. In round-bodied letters like a, d, g, the circle is rarely completed, but is left open, so that small a becomes u, and small d may be mistaken for it, with the i undotted and t uncrossed. Despite its geometrical and caligraphic inaccuracy in detail, this hand is generally written with great regularity, that is, the characters, though incomplete, are always uniform in their irregularity. The e is never open, but is an undotted i, and n is u, but when the peculiarities of the writer become familiar this hand is often very legible.

Flat Hand.—A flat hand is a type of handwriting in which the characters have an oblate or flattened appearance, the o, a, g, &c., being horizontal ovals, like the minim and breve in music. The tails and tops are generally short, with wide loops. It is nearly always a vertical hand.

An Eccentric Hand is one that presents various marked peculiarities and departures from standard rules in the formation of certain letters, and cannot be placed in any recognised class, though it may approximate to one more than to another.

The Round or Clerical Hand is a writing that preserves a close affinity for the round regular hand of the average school-boy, with the difference that while the characters are formed on regular copybook model, the hand is written with considerable fluency and firmness. It is generally only a little out of the perpendicular, sloping slightly towards the right.