We hope this video was helpful, especially if one of your New Year's Resolutions is to improve your handwriting! Let us know your handwriting tips in the comments.
My #1 tip for handwriting improvement is to not be afraid of uniqueness or imperfection, that is what makes your handwriting YOURS, not some studygram influencer’s.
Many people genuinely struggle to make their writing legible. Handwriting isn’t about “uniqueness”-it’s about communication. If people can’t understand what you’re writing, it is not effective. Everything isn’t a matter of being special.
@@Theresamonet yes, but it’s not easy to read a “type-look” and not feel poorly. Also you shouldn’t live someone else’s life with their handwriting, your handwriting is yours
@@coffeecorgi164 thats your opinion... ur on a "how to improve your handwriting" video and ur complaining about blocky and boring?? go write chicken scratch if its pretty to you.
That soft-ring notebook has THE GREATEST PAPER!!!!! Thanks for the tip about choosing neatness OR speed. I'm recently upgrading my handwriting from something already good but adding some stylized touches, and I figured out that slowing down makes it work.
My parents were from back in the days when children were taught handwriting & they would talk about learning how to hold a pen and handwriting drills. It didn’t stop at learning to print letters; they had lessons throughout several years of school.
Good video! I’m in my 70’s & took drafting in high school (only girl in the class). Lettering was 50% of the grade of our drawings. A very artistic classmate used to fill pages with rows of As, Bs, Cs, etc. His lettering was exquisite. But no one learns cursive now? We had a special handwriting teacher who visited different schools with his beautiful fountain pens and suits. Yes, typing is important, so is cursive AND lettering!
that depends heavily on year and school! in my year (2005-8) we spent a week nailing cursive, and half of our class posters were in cursive, so i have a bit of cursive in my handwriting. lettering lessons stopped at 4th grade? i think.
I started out just writing the alphabet or the quick brown fox as practice. I got bored, now I find short poems to write out. The bonus is that because I write slowly as practice, I also have time to take in the facets and deeper meaning of the poem. I've written out loads of poems now and poetry is something that I had really not appreciated at all before I started out just wanting to improve my handwriting. With the poems I've written out, sometimes they resonate with something a friend is going through - so I gift them my hand written poem. A really thoughtful and meaningful gift!! Who knew that trying to improve my handwriting would turn into gifting a handwritten poem to my friend that was in pain.
I was JUST thinking that I would love if you guys did a video on handwriting. I always find myself replaying or pausing to admire the handwriting shown in the videos and throughout the product listings!!! The power of manifestation!!!
I've always struggled with my handwriting since I'm left handed, but all my teachers kept trying to get me to use my right. There was so much inconsistency that my handwriting turned into a mess. I've been slowly improving it but it does take time, especially if it's something you've been doing for nearly your entire life! Fountain pens have helped me slow down and focus on how I write, while gel pens have helped give me confidence so that I don't worry about smudging.
I'm both handed and ngl it's more comfy writing right-handed if the direction is left to right. tip fedora for staying true to your dominant hand despite everything
I'm a former teacher. I've NEVER tried to force a hand switch a student. That's barbaric. I have occasionally encouraged switching hands to make the point of fine motor awareness, but not to impose a switch of preferred hands. Classroom whiteboards have made me become ambidextrous as a teacher. It's great brain stim to write with both hands, and is a relief when one hand becomes fatigued wrting seventy narrative evaluations (in the old days when we did that sort of thing by hand).
@@matchaeylle I don't think it's mean at all. We live in a right hand dominate world. They were probably just thinking of their future and trying to make it easier for them. I was going to be left handed but my parents kept encouraging me to use my right hand. Maybe it only works when you encourage this from the start. I have no difficulties at all and my handwriting has always received compliments. Perhaps it was a bit too late in the game for for the OP since it's the teachers encouraging it later as a child and not the parents as a baby/toddler.
My tip: use a planner throughout the day. I keep a planner that's divided into sections each day. I write things I have to do that day in grey ink or pencil, then once I complete the task, I erase and re-write it in colored ink to match my color-coding. This ensures that I'm writing for a minute or two every few hours, and it lets me see my pretty handwriting over time compared to my crappy quick-handwriting in the future events.
The single biggest improvement to my handwriting Ed due to the Apple Newton PDA of the 90s. It had handwriting recognition, but to work well, the letters had to be clear and legible. So the Newton became a kind of tireless automatic handwriting trainer. It never got tired. It never got bored, it just forced you to write better if you wanted to get good recognition results.
Thank you for the tips Josh! I wrote Steph and you a personal letter alongside some Pokémon coasters for Christmas and the entire time I was ✍🏽 I wished my penmanship was more refined. One of my New Year’s resolution is actually to improve my writing and hopefully write better holiday cards this year!
Great tip on speed vs neatness. I always try to write fast, but that comes at a massive cost to legibility (still readable but certainly not pretty), especially if I don't have nice lined or graph paper to write on (imagine having a baseline). I only noticed recently how much better my handwriting looks once I slow down... and having more comfortable pens/pencils helps a lot. My handwriting is still terrible using a stylus though ;-;
I cleaned up my printing and numbers virtually by visualization at bedtime. It is also quite meditative. It didn't take very long for my writing to change. The video reminded me that I should change my cursive as well.
I tried doing this since this video launched and it's safe to say, it's a success! I write fast and similar to JetPens' font. Go to tools: Sarasa Dry (0.4, 0.5mm), Faber Castell LV5, RX5, CX5, Pilot Kakuno fine and Metropolitan Italic. Paper: Midori Light A6, American notebook, journal notebook.
Great video. I particularly appreciated seeing the characters that you've changed stylistically, like 4's and Y's. I decided to improve my cursive during Covid lockdown. I journal every morning. I slowed down, watched videos, and studied fonts. Slowing down and being mindful and deliberate probably helped the most. Not being afraid to change characters I didn't like was incredibly freeing. I hated the way my capital A's looked. So now my cursive A looks more like calligraphy. I watched another Jet Pens video the other day that helped me immensely. He said to let your index finger guide your pen. OMG, that one tip changed everything! Despite all my practice, my handwriting was still a little bit too cramped and slanted for my taste. When I started using my index finger to guide my pen it opened up the letters and transformed them into things of beauty.
Thank you! This video prompted me to go back and look at my handwriting over the last two years of keeping a journal, and you're right, one has to choose neatness or speed. I've also found that different tools prompt different styles for me - some of my fine fountain pen nibs encourage a very different font than the bolder tips in me. Thank you again, for articulating what I suspected but thought stupid because it didn't sound plausible. That bulba pot though....
Something I have always wanted to improve is my handwriting. These 5 Tips have encouraged me to purchase some NEW writing tools from JetPens and start practicing! I really like the idea of practicing/journaling at the same time. Thanks Josh! :-)
Thank you. I have noticed that my handwriting always looks different some days better than others, and now I know why. I loves pens and pencils, so I have them everywhere, so when I need to write something, I pick up the nearest pen without ever tracking which one I write better with. I will now thanks to your advice.
Well done! "Well, maybe this video can help me get started learning to employ better handwriting." And you came through. I got what I need / want. Clear, sparsely elegant, and most helpful guidance. Thank you.
managing my expectations definitley made the whole "better handwriting" exercise easier. I stuck to making sure it was legible (consistent, well-spaced, and "completely formed letters"). So even if it's not exactly like the handwriting styles I love, I don't feel so bad because theyre legible nonetheless. Oh, and yes! I used to hate .5 tip pens, but they work better for me because I'm made to write bigger and better instead of almost scribbling incomplete letters and running strokes HAHAHA. I hate the fact that Zarasa pens are expensive where I am (most of these pens are), so my go to pen is Dong-A .4/ .5 Gel pens.
For the fountain pen lefties: I found using Lamys LH nib difficult, because I had to retrain my hand. However I think it could help folks especially if they're starting with the hobby. I find that Twisbi pens do not work for my hand position and Kawecos are very hard starting. (my sister is right handed and doesn't have these issues) I have had the most luck with Sailors and Lamys. I especially find the Sailor gold nibs and the 1.1 italic nib in lamy the easiest to get ink on paper without being super scratchy.
Hello. I like your videos and how you show off the latest writing utensils and techniques for improving my handwriting. Because of you, I am getting better at calligraphy.
These tips I learned in 9th grade when I took a calligraphy course for art credit. I still practice letters that become less than ideal for me from time to time. I am also using fountain pens more. I need a great yellow ink that shows up in both the Hobonichi Cousin and Weeks
I've been practicing writing with my right hand lately and my #1 tip is to slow down. I still have some coordination problems when I'm practicing so I just slow down my writing speed to the point where I can focus on each individual letter and take the time to write it correctly. Since I do mostly journalling and personal notetaking, I don't really need to write fast.
Are you a lefty by natural inclination? I've trained myself to write with both hands. It's easier to start on the vertical plane I think, like on a whiteboard mounted on the wall.
Great tips! I thought myself Cursive Italic handwriting in 2017. It was an interesting and rewarding experience. I especially enjoy the pangrams! I still use Cursive Italic handwriting every day.
That "write, then rewrite" tip is gonna help me out during my study sessions! Thanks for the unexpected study tip, though I might go digital in class so I don't have to go through the limited paper I have, lmao
I have gone back to school in my 60s and rewriting out my notes to study them is the one thing I think made my studying easier. Also rewriting them gave me the chance to see if there was anything I missed, anything that looked like it was lacking. This Made A Big Difference. BIG, 2.7 to 3.8 GPA difference. Handwriting makes you slow down and think. I mean, go digital in class and then write them out, but the rewriting was the difference. And good luck!
I have slowly molded my handwriting over the years, often by seeing a letter written or printed in a way I wanted to copy. I started changing my handwriting in 7th grade when we had a teacher with gorgeous printing, and I changed my a's to look like hers. Another way to make handwriting look nicer is to use a stub/italic nib fountain pen. My writing looks the best with my Pilot Metropolitan 1.1 mm stub nib; it's a fairly inexpensive fountain pen (around $20), and it's always my go-to pen for writing letters and journaling. And journaling or keeping a quotation journal provides lots of unhurried practice for writing. I prefer .03 pens when taking notes, .05 gel pens when on the move, and fountain pens at home. I've even taken up calligraphy which has also impacted my daily handwriting. :)
When I was a kid, long ago…when we learned cursive and word processors were not a thing…I was jealous of another girl with beautiful handwriting, so I practiced and practiced to improve mine. We were also given a grade every quarter in Penmanship throughout elementary school, so it counted. When I was an exchange student in France, I liked the different style they used in their handwriting, and taught myself to imitate that…and so I have a unique (for the US) handwriting that is pretty and legible…and I get frequent compliments on it. I agree with another poster that I see everyone having the same exact handwriting now because they’ve followed study bloggers or online tutorials. Don’t be afraid of your own creativity. Handwriting is a personal thing, it’s uniquely yours. Also, I can write pretty quickly and it’s still neat, and I know you’re showing demos of things, so likely you’re slowed down…but, if I wrote that slowly, I would never get anything done. Maybe that’s just me. (I do agree that re-writing your notes is a great way to study…or type them up in a way that organizes things. It sets it in your brain a lot faster than just reading over and over again. Also, it is less boring, for me anyway, and helped me survive grad school. Making outlines of notes from textbooks you read was also helpful vs highlighting things in the textbooks and re-reading that. You can organize things in a way that make sense to you, or that you know your professor honed in on, etc. And for some classes…flash cards…the good old index cards…very satisfying, particularly for math formulas, specific definitions, and foreign language…and it’s a good excuse to use your bigger tip size favorite markers 😁). I’m glad your company didn’t exist when I was in grad school…I would have had to take out more student loans cause I would have wanted to buy some of everything. Now, my grade school age niece has developed a love for stationery and Auntie Molly Mollie is more than happy to shower her with all the cool stuff…so you’re still draining my bank account, Jet Pens! Thanks for this video, because when people compliment my writing (and I have zero artistic talent, so it’s not from that) and say they could never write neatly, I always tell them, just practice and it’ll become second nature. Muscle memory is the key, you are right!)
My handwriting used to be a mess. It's awesome to see that our methods for improving were so similar. My motivation to improve was to learn calligraphy!
Good presentation and tips. I did check out the different pens online and am going to try the Zebra Sarasa Nano 0.3. I like a pretty fine tip point. I was hoping they made a0.2mm but I didn't see one. We'll give it a try Thanks so much for sharing
I'm learning Japanese, so sometimes when I try to improve my English handwriting, I think "oh, I should also improve my Japanese handwriting" and end up going back & forth. Probably not the wisest for long term improvement, but I do want to have good handwriting in both languages.
I've been doing this for 40 years. I've got many notebooks of alphabets and quick brown foxes. I'm a drafter so handwriting is important. My handwriting is just passable. The most improvement I've seen was when I leaned my characters forward 30 degrees as an exercise.
Thank you so much for the awesome tips! I know I'm going to be coming back to reference this vid several times in the future, haha. I suppose if I approach writing practice like art practice, the amount of time it takes to improve doesn't matter as long as I have fun while I'm practicing. Here's to better handwriting in the future!
I remember reading on someone’s handwriting, TH-cam video once that, depending on the pen you use changes your handwriting, and after I read that I was never the same again
These tricks are very useful and I would like to put them into practice on the Hobonich Techo Planner but it's sooo expensive. Not only is my dream planner, but it is the dream planner of many people. I know that it is of high quality and that it contains some very interesting feautres, but the price is not very affordable. I love your content and I hope you reach the amount of 1 million. as soon as possible. Sport and respect! ❤
Pre-printed exemplars are a must for me. I washi tape it to a light board and trace the letters. Once I feel I am close to the original, I practice without the light board.
it really is like drawing!! always keep your old sketchbooks/drawings, let your ink dry before adding color, use a reference, and practice as much as possible. (I really love fine tips for both because I have tiny handwriting and I draw very small, but I've always been heavy-handed so I can't use some fine tips without damaging them ;_; I'm getting better tho)
I moved interstate when I was 10 years old (back in the 70s) and in those days we had to write cursive in Primary school. The state I used to live in (Victoria) did the letters b,f,j,k,p,q,r,s,t,y,z,and all of the capitals differently to where I was now living (Western Australia). The Western Australian style was more like the traditional copperplate than the modernised loopy style in Victoria which was nothing more than printing sort of joined up. I got one of those lined books you used in the first couple of years of school that had thick lines with two finer dotted lines at each third as certain letters would go to the two thirds line, some would go to the half way line and some to just the first third line. Every day after school, I would get out this book and with my trusty HB pencil, I would write the alphabet over and over, just the lower case, then just the upper case until I had filled the page. If I found I was have trouble with a particular letter, I would do a full line of just that letter, over and over. I took a few months but in the end I had changed my muscle memory to the more old school cursive with "tick turns" between letters and the forward lean of about 30 degrees slope. Then three years later I went back to Victoria and the teacher I had was stunned at how 'beautiful' my handwriting was. Then in high school, they didn't care how you wrote...laughs
@Annabell860 1 second ago We learned cursive, If one cannot read or write in cursive, it is difficult to read old documents and records and therefore hard to do any kind of research or advanced learning in many areas. I guess I also distinguish between :"hand writing" and "hand printing", printing being what they teach in schools today. Practice will also make cursive tidy and legible. It is also an artform. I have a few ideas of why they have stopped teaching cursive in the US, but will not put them out for debate here. I would suggest that learning both forms is good for communication and future learning skills.
Soooooo, the card to link to the practice sheet is linking to the timestamp for the start of that segment. Are the sheets able to be reached on the website proper?
Great video and how you emphasized several times. Change will take time. I switched to fountain pens to purposely slow down with my writing, as you said neat and fast are not close to one another. I still scribble still, but even my scribbles are better.
Practice writing in categories such as color names, friend’s names, song lyrics, TV shows, etc… I like both grid paper and dots. They both help keep my letters symmetrical.
The whole class notes thing helped so much when I was in school, especially since I did want my notes in pen, but I knew I'd fuck them up somehow. So I'd write them all in pencil, make sure all the info was correct and everything And then rewrote it all at home as a way of studying I had a bit of a weird journey with penmanship because I changed "my font" so often for so long, I kind of just didn't know what my handwriting was supposed to be anymore XD
So are you the person behind the beautiful JetPens writing? My cursive handwriting is good, but I have been wanting to make my printing more consistent. So I have been looking at photos on JetPens and trying to emulate the writing. One thing I do for practice is to write out the alphabetical names of animals, elements, countries, flowers and plants, etc. That way I get lots of practice with all the letters. Great video - thanks for this.
Josh is not the person who does the writing samples on our site; it's another team member! Thanks for sharing your tip; it's definitely a great way to get all the letters. :)
Pen type affects my hand writing so much! 😂 Only I can decipher my writing when it's with a broad nib fountain pen. For anything I need to refer back to later I use a gel pen.
Though the Sarasa's pretty much have me on lockdown as my go to pen, my notebook addiction can waver and I really didn't need to see those Kokuyo Soft Rings. I'm feelin' that itch to spend, spend, spend.
Haven't watched the video yet but shout out to the lyrics of "Wyatt's Song (Your Name)" by The Wonder Years like 3 seconds in (with the exquisite handwriting example)! One of my favorite bands, someone's got good taste at JetPens 😊
I’m journaling, about a page of A5, before bed every night. Improved quite a bit, but I think my main problem is I’m rushing, thus getting sloppy. Need to practice my pace before my actual handwriting.
Hey there. I love fountain pens. But I always end up clogging them. I never know what kind of ink to buy, and I think that may be one issue. If you guys could make a video on refilling fountain pens, and what kind of ink to use, how to clean them to make sure they don't clog, and how to avoid ink coming out of the tip too much when you aren't using the pen. I've got through quite a few of them, and I feel hesitant to get a nice one.
Generally speaking, you only clog a fountain pen when - You use an ink that is DEFINITELY not for fountain pens, like India ink (which contains shellac) or some drawing inks. These inks will gum up your pen. If you have them and want to use them, get a dip pen for that. - You use specialty ink and let it dry in the pen. Some inks like iron gall, or heavy shimmer inks can be put more or less safely on fountain pens, but it's better not to leave them languishing to dry. Old-style iron gall inks might corrode the metal parts, and shimmer particles might deposit (they should still be able to be cleaned, but it will be a lot harder). Same for "pigment inks" like Platinum Carbon inks. Regular inks are dyes and can be cleaned up with water, pigment inks have particles in them to give color. But these pigments will deposit if they dry out. If you limit yourself to regular, traditional inks and you clean a pen when you're not going to use it for weeks, you should not have a lot of trouble. In the past months I've been able to clean pens with standard blue ink that had been left to dry for decades, literally - and I only had to leave them in clean water and flush them a lot. I'd recommend Waterman's Serenity Blue as the cheap-ish blue ink that will never get you in trouble. www.jetpens.com/Waterman-Serenity-Blue-Ink-50-ml-Bottle/pd/6253 But pretty much any boring ink from the very boring fountain pen companies (Pelikan, Sheaffer, Parker, Pilot, Sailor, and so on) will be able to be cleaned with not too much trouble. Rohrer & Klingner are mostly fine if you limit yourself to their "writing inks", but if you aren't diligent with maintenance, avoid their iron gall inks (they're only two: Salix and Scabiosa) or their SketchInks (waterproof, for artists) to prevent trouble.
Hi there! Generally, fountain pens should not clog unless you have left the ink inside for too long (not cleaning often enough); this can occur more frequently with inks that have extra particles in them, like shimmer inks. Or, the ink you're using is incompatible with fountain pens. We have several videos on fountain pen maintenance you might find useful: How to Clean a Fountain Pen: th-cam.com/video/yF9IRI5WxXg/w-d-xo.html 3 Common Fountain Pen Problems and How to Fix Them: th-cam.com/video/qfPp-B7r8Ig/w-d-xo.html Fountain Pen Filling Systems: th-cam.com/video/dNSOyoGlfug/w-d-xo.html We also have a fountain pen video playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLSMVvri4yXjg4EzUI4IXWeH4unxbq209E.html We also have guides on our site to fountain pens: Beginner's Guide to Fountain Pens: www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Fountain-Pens/pt/927 (includes tips on storing pens) Beginner's Guide to Fountain Pen Inks: www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Fountain-Pen-Inks/pt/968 We hope that helps!
If you go through my notebooks and see the same letter over and over again in the margins somewhere, it means I accidentally wrote it like that, liked it more than the way I usually write it, then practiced it over and over until it became natural.
I have pretty nice handwriting and can write any style: caps, small caps, cursive or calligraphy. (My favorite is cursive, though.) However, sometimes I write illegibly on purpose. I think a messy handwriting has its own charisma and uniqueness. Nice and neat handwriting could be predictable, rigid and boring at times. 😊
i am 15 my handwriting is very bad that even i write the correct answer teachers wont check it i use a cello pin point becuse my frinds and teachers reccomend it but my holding style is i use mid finger as base (putting the grip on top of it) and use the forefinger as up and down maker ( on top of the tip cap and below the grip and my hand bind the pen how to improve it
We hope this video was helpful, especially if one of your New Year's Resolutions is to improve your handwriting! Let us know your handwriting tips in the comments.
When I write, I use a technique that involves moving the paper instead of my hand.
In other words, I write with the paper instead of the pen!
My #1 tip for handwriting improvement is to not be afraid of uniqueness or imperfection, that is what makes your handwriting YOURS, not some studygram influencer’s.
The prettiest handwriting in this video is 10 seconds in. Everything else looks blocky and boring
Many people genuinely struggle to make their writing legible. Handwriting isn’t about “uniqueness”-it’s about communication. If people can’t understand what you’re writing, it is not effective. Everything isn’t a matter of being special.
@@Theresamonet yes, but it’s not easy to read a “type-look” and not feel poorly. Also you shouldn’t live someone else’s life with their handwriting, your handwriting is yours
yes but my uniqueness is clashing w my aesthetic sense.. so I will sacrifice something unique to me kne way or another 🤔
@@coffeecorgi164 thats your opinion... ur on a "how to improve your handwriting" video and ur complaining about blocky and boring?? go write chicken scratch if its pretty to you.
That soft-ring notebook has THE GREATEST PAPER!!!!!
Thanks for the tip about choosing neatness OR speed. I'm recently upgrading my handwriting from something already good but adding some stylized touches, and I figured out that slowing down makes it work.
What is the name of that notebook?
@@Z3Inc the Kokuyu Soofa soft-ring notebook
@@LaLa_ArtGal Thank you!
if you also have a heavy handed, uncomfortable grip you default to, using a fountain pen helps so much in switching to tripod!!
My parents were from back in the days when children were taught handwriting & they would talk about learning how to hold a pen and handwriting drills. It didn’t stop at learning to print letters; they had lessons throughout several years of school.
Good video! I’m in my 70’s & took drafting in high school (only girl in the class). Lettering was 50% of the grade of our drawings. A very artistic classmate used to fill pages with rows of As, Bs, Cs, etc. His lettering was exquisite. But no one learns cursive now? We had a special handwriting teacher who visited different schools with his beautiful fountain pens and suits. Yes, typing is important, so is cursive AND lettering!
that depends heavily on year and school! in my year (2005-8) we spent a week nailing cursive, and half of our class posters were in cursive, so i have a bit of cursive in my handwriting. lettering lessons stopped at 4th grade? i think.
We don't even learn typing at school anymore
I started out just writing the alphabet or the quick brown fox as practice. I got bored, now I find short poems to write out. The bonus is that because I write slowly as practice, I also have time to take in the facets and deeper meaning of the poem. I've written out loads of poems now and poetry is something that I had really not appreciated at all before I started out just wanting to improve my handwriting.
With the poems I've written out, sometimes they resonate with something a friend is going through - so I gift them my hand written poem. A really thoughtful and meaningful gift!!
Who knew that trying to improve my handwriting would turn into gifting a handwritten poem to my friend that was in pain.
I was JUST thinking that I would love if you guys did a video on handwriting. I always find myself replaying or pausing to admire the handwriting shown in the videos and throughout the product listings!!!
The power of manifestation!!!
I've always struggled with my handwriting since I'm left handed, but all my teachers kept trying to get me to use my right. There was so much inconsistency that my handwriting turned into a mess. I've been slowly improving it but it does take time, especially if it's something you've been doing for nearly your entire life! Fountain pens have helped me slow down and focus on how I write, while gel pens have helped give me confidence so that I don't worry about smudging.
that’s so mean of those ‘teachers’ wtf 😅
I'm both handed and ngl it's more comfy writing right-handed if the direction is left to right. tip fedora for staying true to your dominant hand despite everything
@@m.i.n.9000 you can also say ambidextrous for being able to write with both hands
I'm a former teacher. I've NEVER tried to force a hand switch a student. That's barbaric. I have occasionally encouraged switching hands to make the point of fine motor awareness, but not to impose a switch of preferred hands. Classroom whiteboards have made me become ambidextrous as a teacher. It's great brain stim to write with both hands, and is a relief when one hand becomes fatigued wrting seventy narrative evaluations (in the old days when we did that sort of thing by hand).
@@matchaeylle I don't think it's mean at all. We live in a right hand dominate world. They were probably just thinking of their future and trying to make it easier for them.
I was going to be left handed but my parents kept encouraging me to use my right hand. Maybe it only works when you encourage this from the start. I have no difficulties at all and my handwriting has always received compliments. Perhaps it was a bit too late in the game for for the OP since it's the teachers encouraging it later as a child and not the parents as a baby/toddler.
Great tips. Your advice about in-class vs afterwards changed everything. Journaling is a great habit to build, Two birds with one pen!
My tip: use a planner throughout the day. I keep a planner that's divided into sections each day. I write things I have to do that day in grey ink or pencil, then once I complete the task, I erase and re-write it in colored ink to match my color-coding. This ensures that I'm writing for a minute or two every few hours, and it lets me see my pretty handwriting over time compared to my crappy quick-handwriting in the future events.
The single biggest improvement to my handwriting Ed due to the Apple Newton PDA of the 90s. It had handwriting recognition, but to work well, the letters had to be clear and legible. So the Newton became a kind of tireless automatic handwriting trainer. It never got tired. It never got bored, it just forced you to write better if you wanted to get good recognition results.
Thank you for the tips Josh! I wrote Steph and you a personal letter alongside some Pokémon coasters for Christmas and the entire time I was ✍🏽 I wished my penmanship was more refined. One of my New Year’s resolution is actually to improve my writing and hopefully write better holiday cards this year!
They received your package! Steph and Josh really enjoyed your thoughtful gift 😊
i LOVE how they gave tips for heavy-handed writers, as I am one myself!!
Great tip on speed vs neatness. I always try to write fast, but that comes at a massive cost to legibility (still readable but certainly not pretty), especially if I don't have nice lined or graph paper to write on (imagine having a baseline). I only noticed recently how much better my handwriting looks once I slow down... and having more comfortable pens/pencils helps a lot. My handwriting is still terrible using a stylus though ;-;
I cleaned up my printing and numbers virtually by visualization at bedtime. It is also quite meditative. It didn't take very long for my writing to change. The video reminded me that I should change my cursive as well.
You’re the best, Josh
I tried doing this since this video launched and it's safe to say, it's a success! I write fast and similar to JetPens' font.
Go to tools: Sarasa Dry (0.4, 0.5mm), Faber Castell LV5, RX5, CX5, Pilot Kakuno fine and Metropolitan Italic.
Paper: Midori Light A6, American notebook, journal notebook.
Great video. I particularly appreciated seeing the characters that you've changed stylistically, like 4's and Y's. I decided to improve my cursive during Covid lockdown. I journal every morning. I slowed down, watched videos, and studied fonts. Slowing down and being mindful and deliberate probably helped the most. Not being afraid to change characters I didn't like was incredibly freeing. I hated the way my capital A's looked. So now my cursive A looks more like calligraphy.
I watched another Jet Pens video the other day that helped me immensely. He said to let your index finger guide your pen. OMG, that one tip changed everything! Despite all my practice, my handwriting was still a little bit too cramped and slanted for my taste. When I started using my index finger to guide my pen it opened up the letters and transformed them into things of beauty.
Thank you! This video prompted me to go back and look at my handwriting over the last two years of keeping a journal, and you're right, one has to choose neatness or speed. I've also found that different tools prompt different styles for me - some of my fine fountain pen nibs encourage a very different font than the bolder tips in me. Thank you again, for articulating what I suspected but thought stupid because it didn't sound plausible.
That bulba pot though....
Something I have always wanted to improve is my handwriting. These 5 Tips have encouraged me to purchase some NEW writing tools from JetPens and start practicing! I really like the idea of practicing/journaling at the same time. Thanks Josh! :-)
Thank you. I have noticed that my handwriting always looks different some days better than others, and now I know why. I loves pens and pencils, so I have them everywhere, so when I need to write something, I pick up the nearest pen without ever tracking which one I write better with. I will now thanks to your advice.
Well done!
"Well, maybe this video can help me get started learning to employ better handwriting." And you came through. I got what I need / want. Clear, sparsely elegant, and most helpful guidance. Thank you.
I'm a heavy handed everything! I didn't know ink pooled for me, but now that I know I'm going to make sure to be more patient :D
Great tips! Josh seriously seems like the friendliest person ever.
managing my expectations definitley made the whole "better handwriting" exercise easier. I stuck to making sure it was legible (consistent, well-spaced, and "completely formed letters"). So even if it's not exactly like the handwriting styles I love, I don't feel so bad because theyre legible nonetheless. Oh, and yes! I used to hate .5 tip pens, but they work better for me because I'm made to write bigger and better instead of almost scribbling incomplete letters and running strokes HAHAHA. I hate the fact that Zarasa pens are expensive where I am (most of these pens are), so my go to pen is Dong-A .4/ .5 Gel pens.
For the fountain pen lefties: I found using Lamys LH nib difficult, because I had to retrain my hand. However I think it could help folks especially if they're starting with the hobby. I find that Twisbi pens do not work for my hand position and Kawecos are very hard starting. (my sister is right handed and doesn't have these issues)
I have had the most luck with Sailors and Lamys. I especially find the Sailor gold nibs and the 1.1 italic nib in lamy the easiest to get ink on paper without being super scratchy.
Hello. I like your videos and how you show off the latest writing utensils and techniques for improving my handwriting. Because of you, I am getting better at calligraphy.
These are excellent tips! Thank you for this great video.
These tips I learned in 9th grade when I took a calligraphy course for art credit. I still practice letters that become less than ideal for me from time to time. I am also using fountain pens more. I need a great yellow ink that shows up in both the Hobonichi Cousin and Weeks
I've been practicing writing with my right hand lately and my #1 tip is to slow down. I still have some coordination problems when I'm practicing so I just slow down my writing speed to the point where I can focus on each individual letter and take the time to write it correctly. Since I do mostly journalling and personal notetaking, I don't really need to write fast.
Are you a lefty by natural inclination? I've trained myself to write with both hands. It's easier to start on the vertical plane I think, like on a whiteboard mounted on the wall.
5:46 love the shading on the Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo
Great tips! I thought myself Cursive Italic handwriting in 2017. It was an interesting and rewarding experience. I especially enjoy the pangrams! I still use Cursive Italic handwriting every day.
That "write, then rewrite" tip is gonna help me out during my study sessions! Thanks for the unexpected study tip, though I might go digital in class so I don't have to go through the limited paper I have, lmao
I have gone back to school in my 60s and rewriting out my notes to study them is the one thing I think made my studying easier. Also rewriting them gave me the chance to see if there was anything I missed, anything that looked like it was lacking. This Made A Big Difference. BIG, 2.7 to 3.8 GPA difference. Handwriting makes you slow down and think. I mean, go digital in class and then write them out, but the rewriting was the difference. And good luck!
@@Erni3K If it's the rewriting that makes the difference, I could try and get another notepad, and thanks!
I have slowly molded my handwriting over the years, often by seeing a letter written or printed in a way I wanted to copy. I started changing my handwriting in 7th grade when we had a teacher with gorgeous printing, and I changed my a's to look like hers. Another way to make handwriting look nicer is to use a stub/italic nib fountain pen. My writing looks the best with my Pilot Metropolitan 1.1 mm stub nib; it's a fairly inexpensive fountain pen (around $20), and it's always my go-to pen for writing letters and journaling. And journaling or keeping a quotation journal provides lots of unhurried practice for writing. I prefer .03 pens when taking notes, .05 gel pens when on the move, and fountain pens at home. I've even taken up calligraphy which has also impacted my daily handwriting. :)
When I was a kid, long ago…when we learned cursive and word processors were not a thing…I was jealous of another girl with beautiful handwriting, so I practiced and practiced to improve mine. We were also given a grade every quarter in Penmanship throughout elementary school, so it counted. When I was an exchange student in France, I liked the different style they used in their handwriting, and taught myself to imitate that…and so I have a unique (for the US) handwriting that is pretty and legible…and I get frequent compliments on it. I agree with another poster that I see everyone having the same exact handwriting now because they’ve followed study bloggers or online tutorials. Don’t be afraid of your own creativity. Handwriting is a personal thing, it’s uniquely yours. Also, I can write pretty quickly and it’s still neat, and I know you’re showing demos of things, so likely you’re slowed down…but, if I wrote that slowly, I would never get anything done. Maybe that’s just me. (I do agree that re-writing your notes is a great way to study…or type them up in a way that organizes things. It sets it in your brain a lot faster than just reading over and over again. Also, it is less boring, for me anyway, and helped me survive grad school. Making outlines of notes from textbooks you read was also helpful vs highlighting things in the textbooks and re-reading that. You can organize things in a way that make sense to you, or that you know your professor honed in on, etc. And for some classes…flash cards…the good old index cards…very satisfying, particularly for math formulas, specific definitions, and foreign language…and it’s a good excuse to use your bigger tip size favorite markers 😁). I’m glad your company didn’t exist when I was in grad school…I would have had to take out more student loans cause I would have wanted to buy some of everything. Now, my grade school age niece has developed a love for stationery and Auntie Molly Mollie is more than happy to shower her with all the cool stuff…so you’re still draining my bank account, Jet Pens! Thanks for this video, because when people compliment my writing (and I have zero artistic talent, so it’s not from that) and say they could never write neatly, I always tell them, just practice and it’ll become second nature. Muscle memory is the key, you are right!)
Nice to meet the person behind the great handwriting in the videos!
This is such a helpful video! I'm trying to learn how to write/draw with my non dominant hand(Left) so this really will help ! ^^
My handwriting used to be a mess. It's awesome to see that our methods for improving were so similar. My motivation to improve was to learn calligraphy!
I have been slowly working on mine for the past couple of years 😂 my print is now not too bad, my cursive is still shocking but very slowly improving.
I loved this video! Do have a notebook for handwriting practice notebook for lefties?
Good presentation and tips. I did check out the different pens online and am going to try the Zebra Sarasa Nano 0.3. I like a pretty fine tip point. I was hoping they made a0.2mm but I didn't see one. We'll give it a try Thanks so much for sharing
I'm learning Japanese, so sometimes when I try to improve my English handwriting, I think "oh, I should also improve my Japanese handwriting" and end up going back & forth. Probably not the wisest for long term improvement, but I do want to have good handwriting in both languages.
Thank you so much for this video! I’ll definitely try to practice using those work sheets! 🙏🏼✨
I've been doing this for 40 years. I've got many notebooks of alphabets and quick brown foxes.
I'm a drafter so handwriting is important. My handwriting is just passable. The most improvement I've seen was when I leaned my characters forward 30 degrees as an exercise.
I really enjoyed this and gave me another good reason to buy from you, thank you!
Thank you so much for the awesome tips! I know I'm going to be coming back to reference this vid several times in the future, haha.
I suppose if I approach writing practice like art practice, the amount of time it takes to improve doesn't matter as long as I have fun while I'm practicing. Here's to better handwriting in the future!
I remember reading on someone’s handwriting, TH-cam video once that, depending on the pen you use changes your handwriting, and after I read that I was never the same again
These tricks are very useful and I would like to put them into practice on the Hobonich Techo Planner but it's sooo expensive. Not only is my dream planner, but it is the dream planner of many people. I know that it is of high quality and that it contains some very interesting feautres, but the price is not very affordable.
I love your content and I hope you reach the amount of 1 million. as soon as possible. Sport and respect! ❤
Pre-printed exemplars are a must for me. I washi tape it to a light board and trace the letters. Once I feel I am close to the original, I practice without the light board.
My pen size is smaller than the printed exemplar so I can see it while tracing it. 😊
I
it really is like drawing!! always keep your old sketchbooks/drawings, let your ink dry before adding color, use a reference, and practice as much as possible. (I really love fine tips for both because I have tiny handwriting and I draw very small, but I've always been heavy-handed so I can't use some fine tips without damaging them ;_; I'm getting better tho)
I moved interstate when I was 10 years old (back in the 70s) and in those days we had to write cursive in Primary school.
The state I used to live in (Victoria) did the letters b,f,j,k,p,q,r,s,t,y,z,and all of the capitals differently to where I was now living (Western Australia). The Western Australian style was more like the traditional copperplate than the modernised loopy style in Victoria which was nothing more than printing sort of joined up.
I got one of those lined books you used in the first couple of years of school that had thick lines with two finer dotted lines at each third as certain letters would go to the two thirds line, some would go to the half way line and some to just the first third line. Every day after school, I would get out this book and with my trusty HB pencil, I would write the alphabet over and over, just the lower case, then just the upper case until I had filled the page. If I found I was have trouble with a particular letter, I would do a full line of just that letter, over and over. I took a few months but in the end I had changed my muscle memory to the more old school cursive with "tick turns" between letters and the forward lean of about 30 degrees slope.
Then three years later I went back to Victoria and the teacher I had was stunned at how 'beautiful' my handwriting was. Then in high school, they didn't care how you wrote...laughs
@Annabell860
1 second ago
We learned cursive, If one cannot read or write in cursive, it is difficult to read old documents and records and therefore hard to do any kind of research or advanced learning in many areas. I guess I also distinguish between :"hand writing" and "hand printing", printing being what they teach in schools today. Practice will also make cursive tidy and legible. It is also an artform. I have a few ideas of why they have stopped teaching cursive in the US, but will not put them out for debate here. I would suggest that learning both forms is good for communication and future learning skills.
Amazing peak of handwriting for people ☺️♥️✍️ The Best Resolution is good for y'all 🌎
Found your Stationery Paper links.
I am always looking for letter and envelope pairs both correct size and paper quality.
Soooooo, the card to link to the practice sheet is linking to the timestamp for the start of that segment. Are the sheets able to be reached on the website proper?
Hmm that's strange, when we click the card, it takes us to the right page, which is this link: to.jetpens.com/3XoUWqy.
Writing in cursive is inherently faster, and can be completely legible if learned at an early age. Too bad schools are abandoning this skill.
Jet Pen personalities are always genial.
The tips are as good as the Pokémon Mew behind you. Thanks bro for the tips. I’m going to try them all.
I practice more when I enjoy my pens. Studying letter forms is a meditation too 🧘🏾♂️
Great video and how you emphasized several times. Change will take time. I switched to fountain pens to purposely slow down with my writing, as you said neat and fast are not close to one another. I still scribble still, but even my scribbles are better.
Great video and very honest, thanks JetPens!
Very nice and looking forward to your uploading!
Is this a specific font for print? Because I see most of the hosts on Jetpens writing this way. Thanks.
my zebra delgard was cracked when i bought it did not notice until it was too late. Also the nonbreaking function dont always work
Practice writing in categories such as color names, friend’s names, song lyrics, TV shows, etc…
I like both grid paper and dots. They both help keep my letters symmetrical.
The whole class notes thing helped so much when I was in school, especially since I did want my notes in pen, but I knew I'd fuck them up somehow. So I'd write them all in pencil, make sure all the info was correct and everything
And then rewrote it all at home as a way of studying
I had a bit of a weird journey with penmanship because I changed "my font" so often for so long, I kind of just didn't know what my handwriting was supposed to be anymore XD
Thanks Josh !
Is that a Pentel EnerGel RTX i see? Love those!
I'm left-handed. Though my legibility has improved with practice I stopped trying for perfection. Just write and have a great time. 😉
Such great tips !
Hi jetpen, I finally improved my handwriting and I love it
So are you the person behind the beautiful JetPens writing? My cursive handwriting is good, but I have been wanting to make my printing more consistent. So I have been looking at photos on JetPens and trying to emulate the writing. One thing I do for practice is to write out the alphabetical names of animals, elements, countries, flowers and plants, etc. That way I get lots of practice with all the letters. Great video - thanks for this.
Josh is not the person who does the writing samples on our site; it's another team member! Thanks for sharing your tip; it's definitely a great way to get all the letters. :)
The video that I was needing
That print in the background makes it look like Josh is wearing a bow in his hair.
My dude, is that a protoss pylon on your shelf? Nice to find an SC fan in the wild!
Would you mind make review about Tmbow Airtouch mono eraser?
Pen type affects my hand writing so much! 😂 Only I can decipher my writing when it's with a broad nib fountain pen. For anything I need to refer back to later I use a gel pen.
Josh, you are so nice person.
Thank you for the great tips!
Though the Sarasa's pretty much have me on lockdown as my go to pen, my notebook addiction can waver and I really didn't need to see those Kokuyo Soft Rings. I'm feelin' that itch to spend, spend, spend.
Where can i get jet pens
Yeah
Haven't watched the video yet but shout out to the lyrics of "Wyatt's Song (Your Name)" by The Wonder Years like 3 seconds in (with the exquisite handwriting example)! One of my favorite bands, someone's got good taste at JetPens 😊
If I would have watched a little further I would have seen it's you Josh! That's dope!
Thanks the tips were a great help
I've always written in cursive, can i achieve such straight writing?
Thank you for this
I got my hand writing better one summer I was grounded, I would copy a book word for word into a note book, just the constant work helped
You explained that so well. Thank you!
And Hi Jira! :-)
Could JetPens share cursive practice sheets for adults? Especially for fountain pen users, since those are made for cursive writing.
We have practice sheets here! www.jetpens.com/blog/Free-Downloads-Printables-Coloring-Pages-Cursive-Worksheets-More/pt/484
YEAH! Josh!
I’m journaling, about a page of A5, before bed every night. Improved quite a bit, but I think my main problem is I’m rushing, thus getting sloppy. Need to practice my pace before my actual handwriting.
4mm grids, good taste
Thank you
Hey there. I love fountain pens. But I always end up clogging them. I never know what kind of ink to buy, and I think that may be one issue. If you guys could make a video on refilling fountain pens, and what kind of ink to use, how to clean them to make sure they don't clog, and how to avoid ink coming out of the tip too much when you aren't using the pen. I've got through quite a few of them, and I feel hesitant to get a nice one.
Generally speaking, you only clog a fountain pen when
- You use an ink that is DEFINITELY not for fountain pens, like India ink (which contains shellac) or some drawing inks. These inks will gum up your pen. If you have them and want to use them, get a dip pen for that.
- You use specialty ink and let it dry in the pen. Some inks like iron gall, or heavy shimmer inks can be put more or less safely on fountain pens, but it's better not to leave them languishing to dry. Old-style iron gall inks might corrode the metal parts, and shimmer particles might deposit (they should still be able to be cleaned, but it will be a lot harder). Same for "pigment inks" like Platinum Carbon inks. Regular inks are dyes and can be cleaned up with water, pigment inks have particles in them to give color. But these pigments will deposit if they dry out.
If you limit yourself to regular, traditional inks and you clean a pen when you're not going to use it for weeks, you should not have a lot of trouble. In the past months I've been able to clean pens with standard blue ink that had been left to dry for decades, literally - and I only had to leave them in clean water and flush them a lot.
I'd recommend Waterman's Serenity Blue as the cheap-ish blue ink that will never get you in trouble.
www.jetpens.com/Waterman-Serenity-Blue-Ink-50-ml-Bottle/pd/6253
But pretty much any boring ink from the very boring fountain pen companies (Pelikan, Sheaffer, Parker, Pilot, Sailor, and so on) will be able to be cleaned with not too much trouble. Rohrer & Klingner are mostly fine if you limit yourself to their "writing inks", but if you aren't diligent with maintenance, avoid their iron gall inks (they're only two: Salix and Scabiosa) or their SketchInks (waterproof, for artists) to prevent trouble.
Hi there! Generally, fountain pens should not clog unless you have left the ink inside for too long (not cleaning often enough); this can occur more frequently with inks that have extra particles in them, like shimmer inks. Or, the ink you're using is incompatible with fountain pens. We have several videos on fountain pen maintenance you might find useful:
How to Clean a Fountain Pen: th-cam.com/video/yF9IRI5WxXg/w-d-xo.html
3 Common Fountain Pen Problems and How to Fix Them: th-cam.com/video/qfPp-B7r8Ig/w-d-xo.html
Fountain Pen Filling Systems: th-cam.com/video/dNSOyoGlfug/w-d-xo.html
We also have a fountain pen video playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLSMVvri4yXjg4EzUI4IXWeH4unxbq209E.html
We also have guides on our site to fountain pens:
Beginner's Guide to Fountain Pens: www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Fountain-Pens/pt/927 (includes tips on storing pens)
Beginner's Guide to Fountain Pen Inks: www.jetpens.com/blog/The-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Fountain-Pen-Inks/pt/968
We hope that helps!
@@JetPens Thank you so much :D
I love Zebra!
If you go through my notebooks and see the same letter over and over again in the margins somewhere, it means I accidentally wrote it like that, liked it more than the way I usually write it, then practiced it over and over until it became natural.
I have pretty nice handwriting and can write any style: caps, small caps, cursive or calligraphy. (My favorite is cursive, though.) However, sometimes I write illegibly on purpose. I think a messy handwriting has its own charisma and uniqueness. Nice and neat handwriting could be predictable, rigid and boring at times. 😊
i am 15 my handwriting is very bad that even i write the correct answer teachers wont check it i use a cello pin point becuse my frinds and teachers reccomend it but my holding style is i use mid finger as base (putting the grip on top of it) and use the forefinger as up and down maker ( on top of the tip cap and below the grip and my hand bind the pen how to improve it