Emoticons and personalized signatures are now an integral part of our communication. Our every emotion and mood can be effectively conveyed with the use of colours, fonts and icons. All these tools are used for conscious projection of our personality.
Handwriting belongs to this same family of communication means. It displays our personality traits through various factors such as size, slant, zones, margin size, pressure and distinctive letter formations.
Have you ever noticed how you reacted to a friend's writing on a birthday card? Was the script large, slanting rightwards, perhaps colourful? Maybe this friend also used several exclamations and doodles to make it look more interesting. Without even knowing it, you would have smiled to yourself and thought how outgoing and fun-loving this friend was.
Now let us examine another imaginary card, from a more serious-minded friend. Is the lettering smaller in size? Evenly spaced, neat and legible? Do the letters appear upright, following an imaginary, straight baseline? Here, you may have instantly recalled this friend's intelligence, focus and independence.
You may have just realized how each of us analyzes handwriting to some extent or the other. The professional graphologist takes this intuitive response to a greater level. Extensive study, measurement and analysis of numerous factors of handwriting help in building up a comprehensive personality profile of the writer.
If you would like to get a better understanding of how this concept works, consider this: Imagine a person walking into a party. Let this person be tastefully dressed in the trendiest clothes, confident and impressive. Suppose this person smiles at everyone, but shortly joins up with her clique of close friends. She may pass witty comments and laugh engagingly at others' jokes. What kind of writing do you think this person would have? Wouldn't it surprise you if you were told that she has an untidy scrawl, where the words run into one another, presenting an overall picture of messy, confused smudges? It is more likely that you are picturing a neat, classy script, slanting forward moderately, with lots of “garlands” or curves joining the letters together. Correct? This is because at some subconscious level, you may have already noticed the “consistency” of a person's personality. Leaving aside deliberate pretensions, a person tends to project the same personality through all means of communication. The way in which he approaches his spatial area (as the room in the above example) is very akin to way he approaches a blank piece of paper.
The margins, word and letter spacing represent “boundaries”. A narrow left margin may indicate a person who is attached to his past. Narrow right margins would show an eagerness to embrace the future.
The letters themselves are divided into three “zones”. The upper zone corresponds to the “spirit” and intellectual aspects, the middle zone to the “mind”, day-to-day and emotional aspects while the lower zone corresponds to the “body', physical drives and vitality.
Have you noticed how your boyfriend joins his letters? Do his letter connectors, beginning and ending strokes appear cup shaped, curved at the bottom and open at the top? If they do, then you are in luck. These “Garlands” are indicative of warm, sentimental and caring people. If his writing appears predominantly thread-like, unwinding or tapering towards the end of letters and words, then you better be careful. He is more likely to be evasive and it will be harder to get him to make any firm commitments.
The slant of the writing is indicative of how he/she prefers to interact with the world. Left slanting writing indicates a more reserved or introverted nature. Right slanting writing shows a more outgoing or extrovert nature. Upright writing usually displays an independent personality.
Space between letters indicates extent of thrift and tension. Space between words shows how the person handles “distance” with others. For example, well spaced writing indicates someone who respects others' space and privacy. Space between lines displays the sense of organization.
Pressure measures vitality and physical strength. It is influenced by the health, energy and emotional state of the writer and can change from sample to sample.
The body of a writing sample is more representative of a person, than his signature. The signature is his conscious projection to the world and is the image he would like the world to have of him. Age, sex, gender, left or right-handedness and nationality cannot be determined from handwriting. A graphologist should be given this information beforehand. Handwriting analysis is not a fortune-telling tool. It does not predict your future. Handwriting analysis helps to understand the writer's personality with a greater depth and clarity. This understanding can then be used for self-improvement, personality development, vocational guidance, relationship counselling, etc... Some companies choose to use handwriting analysis as a recruitment tool. It can be used to gauge the extent to which the applicant's traits match those required of the job profile.
It is important to remember that graphology is an extensive science, requiring some serious study. In some ways, it is also an art, as it is important to take a holistic approach to the writing. The overall nature of the writing must be taken into account, before drawing any conclusions. Matching traits to a single “observation” or “sign” can be misleading.
However, the next time you look at a piece of writing, you will probably pay greater attention and gain more insights into the writer's personality.
译文:
笔迹泄露了你的什么秘密？
图释和个性签名现在已经成为我们交流的一个主要部分。通过对色彩、字体和图标的使用，我们有效地传达了每种情感和情绪。这些工具都用来对我们的个性进行有意识的表达。
笔迹是交流方式的一种。它通过如大小、倾斜度、写字区域、空白大小、写字力度和个人文字形式之类的各种要素来显示我们的个性特色。
你是否曾经意识到，当看到生日贺卡上朋友的笔迹时，你是如何反应的呢？字体大不大，是否向右倾斜，是否花哨？也许这个朋友还用了一些感叹词和涂鸦使得贺卡看上去更有趣。也许你不曾意识到，你也许对自己笑了笑，想着这朋友是多么友好多么有趣啊。
现在让我们想象另一张来自一位态度严谨的朋友的卡片。是不是文字比较小？空隙均匀、整洁清晰？文字是不是笔直竖立，就像下面有一条虚拟的笔直的基线一样。这种情况下，你也许马上会回想起这个朋友的机智、专注和独立。
你也许才意识到我们每个人是如何在某些程度上来分析字迹的。专业笔相家把这种直觉反应放在非常重要的地位。对字迹众多要素的广泛学习、衡量和分析可以帮助我们建立写字人的一个全面的个性特征图解。
如果你想要更进一步地了解这种观念怎样起作用，这样想想：想象一个人走近派对。这个人穿着潮流服饰，自信，给人深刻的印象。假设她朝每个人微笑，但是立刻就加入了她的密友圈。她也许会错过诙谐的评论，对别人的玩笑，对他人的玩笑动人一笑。你觉得这样的人会有怎样的笔迹？如果人家告诉你她字迹潦草凌乱，单词一个跳到另一个，真个页面就是一团糟，模糊脏乱，你会觉得惊讶吗？你一般会勾勒出一幅整洁、漂亮的笔迹，适度的倾斜，文字还带有很多花哨或者是弧度。是吗？因为下意识的，你会已经意识到个人个性的连贯性了。除故意之外，一个人一般在所有交流方式中都展示了同样的个性。他处理他的空闲区域（就如上面的例子中提到的空间）的方式和他处理一张空白纸的方式是一样的。
页面的空白，单词和字幕间隔代表一定的分界线。左边空白狭窄表明依附于他的过去。右边空白狭窄就表示憧憬拥抱未来。
字母本身被分为三个区域。上方区域对应灵魂和智力方面，中间区域对应情绪，日常和情感方面，而下方区域对应肉体、身体动力和活力。
你是否意识到你的男朋友是怎样连接他的字母的？他的字母是不是连写，开头和收尾的笔画是不是有顿角，底部弯曲顶部舒展？如果是的话，那你太幸运了。这些花哨是热烈，感性和有同情心的表现。如果他的字迹是明显的线状、舒展或字母单词的尖端细长，那你最好要小心点了。他一般是逃避责任的，很难让他做出任何坚定的承诺。
字体的倾斜度表明了他/她喜欢如何融入世界。向左倾斜的字体表明这人比较保守或者内向。向右倾斜的字体表示这人的性格比较开放或者外向。竖直的字体一般就说明这人很独立。
字母间的空间表明节俭和紧张的程度。单词间的空间表明这个人如何处理和他人之间的距离。例如，字间距离恰当表明这人尊重他人的空间和隐私。行间距表明了一个人的组织性。
写字的力度衡量了活力和身体力量。这受写字者健康、精力和情绪状态的影响，并且每种情况都会不同。
取样的字的主体比他的签名更能代表一个人、签名是这个人向世界有意识的表达，也是一个他希望世界对他产生的形象。年龄、性别、左撇子或惯用右手和国籍都无法从签名上加以判断。笔相家必须预先就有这样的信息，笔迹分析不能作为算命工具。它并不浴室你的未来。笔迹分析帮助我们更加深刻和清晰地去理解写字者的个性。这样的了解之后可以用来进行自我提升、个性发展、职业指导、关系协商等等。一些公司选择运用笔迹分析作为招聘工具。它可以作为衡量求职者个性和职位所要求素质的符合程度。
记住笔迹学是个需要一些严谨学习的科学是很重要的。在某些程度上，它也是一种艺术，就想它对笔迹进行整体分析很重要一样。笔迹的总体性质在得出结论之前必须要进行评估。个别的观察或符号得出的匹配个性都是错误的。
但是，下次你看到一幅字，你也许就会放更多的注意力在上面，来洞察写字者的个性。