Penmanship

Penmanship is the art of writing clearly and quickly. Different styles of writing have been popular at different times and in different countries. The publication of The Spencerian Key to Practical Penmanship by Platt Rogers Spencer in 1866 introduced Business writing to North America. This "Spencerian Method" was taught in schools until the about the mid-20th century. Starting at the beginning of the 20th century, Zaner-Blosser Script and the Palmer Method, introduced by Charles Paxton Zaner (15 February 1864 - 1 December 1918) and Elmar Ward Bloser (6 November 1865 - 1929) of the Zanerian Business College and A. N. Palmer in his Palmer's Guide to Business Writing published in 1894 became the dominant copybooks in North America. Starting in the early sixties, D'Nealian Script and Getty-Dubay become the dominant copybook taught in North America.

See also

• Regional handwriting variation
• Palaeography - the study of script
• Diplomatics - forensic palaeography (seeks the provenance of written documents)
• - modern German running writing.