A preliminary investigation into handwriting examination by multiple measurements of letters and spacing

Theoretically, the scientific measurement of letters, letter spacing and word spacing provides a mathematical basis for the statistical comparison of handwriting. Ten volunteers were asked to write the same short passage. Ten features were measured, up to 10 times each, to characterise each writer. Measurements of repeat handwriting 2 years later failed to identify the writer, and this was attributed to a change in the height of the middle zone. Measurements of ‘it’ and ‘th’ spacings were the least affected.