How I improved my digital handwriting

Neat handwriting helps memorization and achieving goals. Here’s how I improved my digital handwriting when writing on the iPad

This is James / illustrating

Neat handwriting helps memorization and achieving goals

Writing by hand has been demonstrated to have a positive effect both on learning/memorization and achieving goals. And so earlier this year I started to take handwritten notes on an Apple iPad Pro whilst on my daily half-hour train commute. But my handwriting sucked. This is an example:

Terrible, isn’t it?

Productivity gurus such as James Clear¹ and Dave Allen² emphasize the importance of apparently trivial things in being productive. Little things can have major psychological effects. One of those little things is neatness - people are generally much more satisfied with work which is neat and tidy. Neatness can even be a strong motivator - the happier you will be with the end results, the more likely you are to do something. Neatness matters. So I set myself a goal of improving my iPad handwriting.

¹ James Clear website

² Getting Things Done by David Allen

My first attempt at improving

Initially, I thought the best way to go about this would be to choose a clear typeface and then memorize it. I choose Avenir Next Ultra Light, which is very clear and crisp:

I created some worksheets for myself, and spent a few hours over several days going over the letters like a schoolboy:

I used my new handwriting skill on a project to create a timeline of the Medici family:

I showed it to a friend I could trust to give an unvarnished opinion. Her response:

Second attempt

Whilst I was pleased my digital handwriting now looked much neater, I wasn’t at all happy that it apparently looked like Comic Sans (What’s so wrong with Comic Sans?). I decided it would be better to learn someone else’s handwriting. Some people have handwriting which is so good it has been turned into a font. I choose the Tekton font, which is based on the handwriting of the architect Frank Ching.

After some practice, this was the result:

Better, but I wasn’t entirely happy with it. And most important, it wasn’t my style, but a crappy rendition of Mr Ching’s. I decided to develop my own style.

Developing my own style

I want to have handwriting that:

• is distinctive
• is fairly quick to do
• looks sophisticated and visually consistent
• is mine!

I concentrated on each individual letter, trying out different ways to form them. My refinements have gradually got smaller and more subtle. This is how my handwriting currently looks:

I made a reference sheet for myself:

I don’t think this journey is finished for me. There are still things I am not entirely happy with. Do I want the long bar of the lowercase y to be vertical or forward sloping? Should I remove the uptick on the lowercase q? How can I make it more distinctive? I will keep working on it. But I’m fairly happy with the results and I’m looking forward to making neat study notes with it.

The poem I’ve been using for my handwriting practice is the wonderful If— by Rudyard Kipling³. Here’s the poem in full:

³ I really love this reading of it by Dennis Hopper on the Johnny Cash show in 1970.

Epilogue March 2023

Eventually I decided I prefer making notes with paper and pen. However, it was still useful going through this process. Now I need to work on improving my lettering using pen and paper.