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The variability of cursive handwriting measures defined along a continuum: Letter specificity.
Authors:
Wing, A.M. & Nimmo-Smith, I.
Reference:
Journal of the Forensic Science Society, 27, 297-306.
Year of publication:
1987
CBU number:
2127
Abstract:
Statistics are provided on two measures of cursive handwriting: ratio (height of l relative to immediately preceding e) and proportion (d ascender height relative to the height of the base). Both measures involve a comparison of the extent of large and small vertical pen-strokes. However, the variability between the writing of different individuals relative to the variability observed within any one individual writing was greater in the case of d-proportion than in the case of el-ratio. For the purposes of forensic handwriting comparison, d-proportion may be considered potentially the better feature. If measurements based on physical continua are to be seriously considered as candidate features in computer-aided comparisons of handwriting, the present result suggests that it will be important to take account of the particular letter within which the pen-strokes appear.
