Page 13 - An Inky Lead Questioned Documents

as letter form. Although we typically think of each the relative relationships between characters.
letter as being written only a single way, there is Additionally, forensic document examiners have
a great deal of variation in how a given letter can discovered that when asked to change these ratios,
be written. The illustration to the left shows seven participants in the study had difficulty maintaining
capital letter G’s, some written as a block letter, the difference and would revert back to their
others as cursive. Of the block letters, one is made normal ratio.
with a single stroke, the remainder with two, though
the final stroke is a different shape in each. One of
the cursive letters is made using two strokes, and
one is simply an exaggerated form of the lower
case form. Form alone, however, should not be used
as a definitive character because a writer can easily
change the character’s form if trying to disguise
writing. The same writer created all of the forms in
the illustration.

Line quality is also used in handwriting
characterization and is related to the speed at
which the writing was produced. Slow writing
causes shaky lines of uniform thickness and
definite stop-points. Quick writing creates smooth
lines with tapers at the end where the pen is lifted
from the page as it continues to move. Writing
speed is related to the graphic maturity of the
writer if the writing is produced under normal
circumstances, however, poor line quality or slow
speed can indicate a writer with a higher degree
of graphic maturity is writing under unfavorable
conditions, trying to disguise their writing, or
forging the writing of another.

Absolute features, such as letter height, the slant
of letters compared to the baseline, or the spacing
between words, are not useful for handwriting
characterization, as these features vary normally
between writing acts. The ratios between letter
heights, stem slants, or letter spacing, however,
are much less variable. In two documents written
by the same person for example, the stems of the
letter b shown in the figure below were 6.28 mm
and 11.8 mm respectively. The ratios of the ball to
the stem in the same letter, however, were 0.452
and 0.464. Although a writer can easily scale, tilt,
or space their writing, they do not typically change

THE MYSTERY OF LYLE AND LOUISE 13