About Handwriting Success

Handwriting Success publishes the Getty-Dubay Italic books, materials and apps that bring legibility, beauty and ease to the everyday experience of writing by hand.

Since 1979, Getty-Dubay Italic offers fun and effective learning tools for anyone who wants to improve their handwriting or learn the art of calligraphy. Both the Italic Handwriting Series books and Italic Calligraphy: for School and Home are in use in schools and thousands of homes across America and abroad.

Over 4,500 medical professionals across the United States and tens of thousands of other adults and professionals have improved their handwriting through our flagship workbook for adults, WRITE NOW.

For our many customers who want to use a tablet & stylus to improve their handwriting, we’re delighted to add the additional choice of WRITE NOW as an app, available for both iOS and Android devices. For students, we offer Italic 123, three separate iPad apps for ages 6-9.

Meet the Founders and Authors

Barbara Getty, B.A., M.A.T., was an adjunct professor at Portland Community College where she taught calligraphy and handwriting from 1969 to 1999. She was an elementary school teacher for fourteen years and also taught at Portland State University and Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Inga Dubay, B.A., was an adjunct professor at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, Oregon where she taught calligraphy for 25 years, and was Books Arts Department Head for six years. She taught handwriting in public and private schools for thirteen years and has spent countless additional volunteer hours with children in public school classrooms.

Getty-Dubay Italic began in 1979 as the collaboration between two like-minded educators, Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay, both artists, calligraphers, and teachers.

Having recognized the need for an alternative to the then-traditional system for learning handwriting, they set about creating instruction books for children — all handwritten — that were soon widely adopted by schools.

A handwriting book for adults came in 1991, as well as two instruction books on calligraphy. Today, Getty-Dubay Italic is in use in business and education throughout the United States and internationally.

Getty and Dubay have offered 170 Rx for Handwriting Success seminars for medical professionals across the United States, and also have presented at the World Health Organization in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the International Patient Safety Conference in Florence, Italy.

In addition, they have each taught handwriting and calligraphy as faculty in schools and colleges in the Pacific Northwest.

The legacy of their mentors in calligraphy, including that of Lloyd J. Reynolds, is in evidence in all their books, especially in their calligraphy instruction book for adults, Italic Letters. Dubay has also authored a calligraphy book for students, Getty-Dubay Italic Calligraphy for School & Home as a companion to the Italic Handwriting Series. This book is the product of a unique program by Reed College to bring calligraphy into elementary school classrooms.

Getty-Dubay is a registered trademark in the United States.

Our Advisors

We are honored to have an advisory board filled with artists, authors, and educators.

Our continued thanks to:

Inga Dubay, calligrapher, author & Getty-Dubay co-founder
Barbara Getty, calligrapher, author & Getty-Dubay co-founder
Christine Colasurdo, calligrapher & author
Sonja Grove, EdD
Gregory MacNaughton, Education Outreach & Calligraphy Initiative Coordinator, Cooley Gallery, Reed College
Jennifer Rich, owner of Oblation Papers and Press

Giving Back

We are proud supporters of these organizations:

ACLU
Color of Change
Liberty House Child Abuse Assessment Center
Lion’s Club International Fund Sight for Kids Program
Susan G. Komen Foundation