Done ... (in script).

The search is over. The search for my 'hand'. Script hand, that is.

In working on my 'fair copy' thing (see Fair Deal, my post on July 18, 2010), I found that my old, informal script hand (handblock, print hand, whatever), which I've used for decades and worked just fine for notes and garden-variety jottings, just looked like sh*& on page after page of My Collected Works (first typed 'Words' -- which fits.)

So, I started trying to remember how I was taught script hand (we called it 'hand-printing' instead of 'handwriting', which was cursive) back in grade school. It looks pretty much like the "Normal" font for this Blogger account, though without serifs. But, when I got to writing titles for the poems, as well as a title page for the collection with its own title, it still looked wrong. 

I didn't know what to do with 'I' -- the capital letter, that is. If I made it like a straight line, it looked like a little 'l', and that was confusing because I had one title with the word "Ill" in it.

But if I added little 'caps' on the I, it still looked wrong.  And if I put a tiny 'serif' on the little 'l', it looked pretentious and even more wrong.

Then, like a bolt from the blue yesterday, it hit me. There are three kinds of letters in script hand. No typewriter I know can reproduce them, so it seems to me we've forgotten about that third kind.

Back in the days of Greek parchment manuscripts, there were three kinds of script. One was capital, one was uncial, and one was minuscule. Because both capital and uncial are large letters ("majuscule", in script-speak), they were combined in typesetting and then in personal typewriters.

But capital letters and uncial letters have different functions when all you've got is paper and pen. I can't reproduce it here, and I know of no custom type fonts that have them in a personal-computer form (the keyboards we use are mostly the same as typewriters -- with a number pad, a function pad and some command keys added).

What we casually call script hand is merely a combination of capital and minuscule ('little') letters. But if you add modern uncial English hand, and if you combine the three properly, there is no confusion.

Here is my short hand (ouch) guide:

Most uncials look just like short capital letters in modern script hand. There are two exceptions: the capital "I" and capital "J" have the caps, which are wider than serifs though not as wide as the cap on the capital "T". However, the uncials of those letters have no caps and are the same height as the other uncial letters. If you were writing capital letters in script hand that filled almost the entire space between the lines of standard pre-lineated paper, the uncials would be about three- or four-fifths that high.

The minuscule "i" and "j" are dotted, the dots reaching about the same height as the capital letters.

Capital letters are used to start sentences, identify proper names, etc. in both uncial and minuscule script hand. All-capital hand is for book titles (magazine names, etc.). A mix of capitals and uncials would be for chapter names (and perhaps the author's name, etc.), while capitals plus minuscules are for plain text. The all-uncial hand would be like bold text (citations for book titles, signage in text, etc.), with underscoring reserved throughout for emphasis, including subchapter names and so forth. Italics -- well, that's another matter. (Afternote {5/11/13}: You could just use cursive in those instances, though true italic script hand is where we get into calligraphy.)

I know all this is confusing, when a scan of my script hand formula would show what I mean in a second. I just don't have that capability here. Sorry.

Nobody I know does this anymore, and you'd only see it probably on fair copies nowadays. For the hand(ouch-ouch)ful of us who even want to do that.

But figuring it out made me happy. Thought I'd share.

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BTW, 'lettering' in word balloons for comic books is usually different: it uses what I'm calling 'uncial' hand in all but the letter 'I'. It seems most comic-book letterers by convention use the uncial 'I' in all but one instance -- first-person singular, when they use a capital 'I' with its 'caps'.

Afternote (4/18/13): Forgot all about the numeral 'one'. Had used a single " | " stroke (but shorter) for decades, much like old manual typewriters that used a lowercase " l " for a numeral one (Google's Times typeface still does!). But the traditional little curved leader with a standard base (leader and left-side of base the same length) now works for me. Needed to deepen the curves on numerals two and three, give the open numeral four a little curve of its own, and put an extra tiny downstroke on the top of the numeral seven for full effect. A lot clearer now.