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penmanship

The 500th anniversary year!

March 29, 2021 by hsadmin

The first handwriting instruction book made its debut 500 years ago.

Cover page of Arrighi’s La Operina, 1522. Source: Library of Congress.

Vatican scribes of the Italic Renaissance had invented a legible, versatile and beautiful hand based on the proportions of the golden rectangle and ancient Roman capital letters. The cancellerescha style of writing, now known as Italic, spread rapidly and became the model for new styles of type as well. It was the handwriting style of Michelangelo, Queen Elizabeth I, and countless others since. We assume that the popularity of this style was what inspired Ludovico Vincentino Arrighi in 1522 to publish his La Operina, a book of handwriting models in the new chancery style to be used for copywork.

This renaissance Italic became the progenitor for the handwriting styles —and styles of type — that we use today across the globe wherever the Latin-based alphabet is written.

Italic is the basis for many type styles today.

Handwriting instruction by copying and tracing has been around for thousands of years. Students in ancient times used tablets of clay or wax, marking the surface with a stylus and then smoothing it over to write again.

One telling example of this is from a letter dating from the 7th century BCE, where the King of Assyria scolds his daughter-in-law for not doing her homework, literally saying, “Why are you not tablet-writing?” 

Here is a much later example of student tablet writing from 2nd Century Egypt (written in Greek).

2nd Century wax tablet that contains teacher (top) and student writing (bottom). Source: The British Library.

But Arrighi’s book presented two new ideas: Standardized instruction and literacy for the general population.

Today, we have a different sort of tablet and stylus, and no shortage of handwriting methods. And yet, literacy levels in schools across the US have remained stagnant and low, and there is an uneven distribution of handwriting instruction. New research suggests that handwriting is an integral part of the science of reading, literacy and college readiness. In other words, we write to learn.

At Handwriting Success, we’re connecting the dots with Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting that brings the spirit of Arrighi, and his handwriting, into the 21st century. Not only has the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series for K-6 been helping provide legible, practical handwriting to hundreds of thousands of students for over 40 years, it is now available for tablet and stylus. Our Handwriting Success App provides stand-alone year-long handwriting curricula in seven ebooks that students can write in.

So, are you tablet-writing?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: arrighi, catholic, cursive, handwriting, instrcution, penmanship

Getty-Dubay App launches on Kickstarter on National Handwriting Day

February 7, 2020 by hsadmin

How’s your handwriting?

The Getty-Dubay Handwriting Success App is a complete handwriting improvement program for adults using a tablet and stylus. We chose National Handwriting Day 2020 to take it to Kickstarter.

We’ve been getting requests to make this app for years. Now that Apple, Google, Wacom, Adonit and other manufacturers are ramping up their stylus competition, we think this is the right time to jump in.

With this app you’ll be able to use the WRITE NOW content over and over. Practice to your heart’s content, whenever and wherever you have your tablet and stylus.

With so many tablets on the market, this app needs to present the WRITE NOW content elegantly on many screen sizes, and with multiple stylus platforms. Our app developer is using cross-platform development technology to make sure that the user experience is easy and enjoyable on any suitable tablet. (Minimum tablet dimension will be 7.5 inches.) While this keeps cost down, there will be challenges with optimizing for the various native platforms.

We’re starting simple; no bells and whistles to distract you from your handwriting practice. With subsequent updates, we plan to have an in-app store for all of our handwriting books, and build in more self-assessment features that will complement the user experience.

Learn more…

Filed Under: Handwriting, News Tagged With: android, app, cursive, Getty-Dubay, handwriting, ipad, Italic, kickstarter, penmanship, stylus

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  • About
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  • Handwriting
    • Italic Handwriting
    • For Kids
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    • Why Cursive?
    • Why Italic?
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  • Products
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