What Your Handwriting Says About You
Personality Revealed
By Mary Kearl
How you write your letters -- dark, small, large, curved or angled -- can give insight into your personality and innermost thoughts, says Michelle Dresbold, handwriting analyst and author of "Sex, Lies, and Handwriting: A Top Expert Reveals the Secrets Hidden in Your Handwriting." Read through the photo gallery below to learn about what writing traits reveal about the person behind the pen. Note you'll need to disable your pop-up blocker to view the slide show.
Read as text.
Sex, Lies and Handwriting
By Mary Kearl
How you write your letters -- dark, small, large, curved or angled -- can give insight into your personality and innermost thoughts, says Michelle Dresbold, handwriting analyst and author of "Sex, Lies, and Handwriting: A Top Expert Reveals the Secrets Hidden in Your Handwriting." Read on to learn about what writing traits reveal about the person behind the pen.
Getty Images
If You Don't Do This You Have No Follow-Through
"Somebody who crosses their 't' halfway doesn't follow through in life. He starts something, but doesn't finish it. But if he crosses his 't,' he's completing it. That physical act will translate into other areas of his life over time, which is just a small example of how you can change traits in your writing to be better in life."
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
Signature vs. Handwriting
"You write your signature for other people. Your signature is how you want to portray yourself to the world, while the rest of your writing displays how you really are. If your signature is very different from the rest of your handwriting, what you show to the public is not necessarily what you feel inside. You can have one image for the world and another image of yourself internally."
Recognize These Signatures? From top to bottom, they belong to Charles Manson (notice the swastika), Liberace (there is a piano in that scrawl) and Beatle Ringo Starr (notice the star within the Starr)
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
Detect Lying in Writing
"If you speak the truth, you don't have to think much about it. When you lie, you hesitate, because lying takes extra thinking. In writing in which someone is lying, there will either be a gap, the words will tighten up (as a person who's lying tenses up) or they will move out of alignment. If you practice noticing this, you can really tell when someone is lying."
Which Note-Writer Do You Think Is Lying?
If you thought John was lying, you're right. Notice the spacing and change in writing style between "I got" and "a flat tire."
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
Are You Obsessed With Sex?
"There are different things that can show obsession. People like Michael Jackson have phallic symbols in their handwriting. Usually that means an obsession with sex. Lower loops can represent the emphasis people put into physical action below the waist. These symbols could also appear in your writing if you're thinking about sex more than you usually do."
Can you spot the "sexual symbol" in these signatures?
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
Messy vs. Neat Handwriting
"Messy handwriting can be a good thing. You could be very bright and very creative, but messy handwriting could mean you're thinking quickly because your brain is moving very fast. Perfectly neat handwriting is not necessarily a good thing. If someone's handwriting is too neat, they may not be able to be spontaneous."
The messy scratchings in the top sample belong to none other than poetic songwriter John Lennon.
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
The Ideal Handwriting
"Extra-round-looking handwriting indicates when someone is almost too young and relaxed, or too easy-going. Ideally we want a combination of curved and angled handwriting, at least for an adult."
Israel's fourth prime minister, Golda Meir's autograph embodies this balance.
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
If Your Periods Look Like This, You're Stuck in a Rut
"If someone makes their periods or the dot on a lowercase 'i' big and thick and grinds them into the page, it means that they're resentful and can't move forward. Someone who grinds their periods is stuck in one place. The physical movement on the page represents someone who is fixated, someone who can't easily get over things and can't easily move on."
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
Tiny vs. Large Handwriting
"When you write large, you feel free. A person who likes to be seen will have writing that's noticeable and free. If you try and write really, really tiny, you need to focus more and block out the rest of the world. People who write this way are focused on their tasks and don't really notice what is going on around them."
Sample B's signature belongs to the now-famous recluse, the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
How Rule-Breakers Write
"A lot of behaviors can show rule-breaking. One that is pretty obvious shows up when you write on lined paper: On the left-hand side, there is a vertical line -- that stands for society -- and when people write through that line on a normal-sized sheet of paper, choosing to disregard that line, it means rules in general aren't for them. That, to me, is a pretty dangerous sign."
From Sex, Lies and Handwriting
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Recent Comments
CyBoTot 01:10:16 AM Jun 07 2009
I would like to see AOL have a graphology expert do an in depth analysis of BOs handwriting, if they dare.
CyBoTot 01:03:22 AM Jun 07 2009
Google Obama's signature, the big slash straight down through it, indicates a LIAR. Put on your deep boots America, judging from his signature it looks like BO is full of BS.
CyBoTot 12:59:18 AM Jun 07 2009
Using this graphology information google an image of Obama's signature, then see what this info can tell you about him.1. Writes large, likes to be seen. Check2. Writes very extra rounded, -"Extra-round-looking handwriting indicates when someone is almost too young and relaxed, or too easy-going. Ideally we want a combination of curved and angled handwriting, at least for an adult." mmmm thats not good since he's the POTUS.3 Con artists will make some letters look like they could be other letters, words can't be read when taken out of context - Uh-oh, this is not looking good.4. Worst of all - check out Obama's O with a slash completely straight down through it and hanging out of it, makes O.J.s slash look weak and pathetic by comparison and look what they said about O.J - O.J.'s Handwriting Gives Him Away. O.J. Simpson puts a slash through his o -- called a forked-tongue stroke -- the sign of a liar. Any little mark through your o's and a's means that something about your communica
LoynKloth103 12:58:59 PM Apr 01 2009
I think a more dependable method of determining personality traits is : "Mary Ann, or Ginger?"
UnifiedFT 11:03:59 AM Apr 01 2009
I thought crossing your t's meant you might have paid a little attention in school. My bad.
Jiyu 08:01:01 PM Mar 31 2009
Total baloney. Trying to predict personality from handwriting has no validity whatsoever. You might as well believe in tarot cards and palm reading!
GaMay9 07:39:46 PM Mar 31 2009
Too many words - to finish my blog: nsert foot. Do you think I escaped from this one?
GaMay9 05:29:35 PM Mar 31 2009
Long ago I bought a paperback on handwriting analysis. It read that an upward slant in handwriting (or signature) reveals a positive outlook, confidence and a pleasant personality, like Golda Meier's and Hitler's samples. Complete opposite types!DOWN UP IS IS NOT GOOD GOOD Liberace's signature is theatrical. It is flamboyant, gregarious and grandiose. My sister went to the same school, West Milwaukee High. She was a freshman when he was a senior. Although she didn't know him well, he was considered to be 'queer' (not politically incorrect back in the fifities).I hope my sister doesn't read this; it ages her. But, she looks twenty years younger than her chronological age. Wow! Open mouth, i
Rbtcldwll 02:39:55 PM Mar 20 2009
Alot of what they say about Graphology is true. I had a guy I worked with who was a real man ho and he would use Graphology to screen his dates. He always found the weakest woman to pray on that way. Over the years I noticed how his signature changed on the invoices and he had added the felons claw not once but twice in his signature.
