Regional handwriting variation

Although people in many parts of the world share common alphabets and numeral systems (versions of the Latin writing system are used throughout the Americas, Australia, and much of Europe and Africa; the Western Arabic numerals are nearly universal), styles of handwritten letterforms vary between individuals, and sometimes also vary systematically between regions.

Western Arabic numerals

The handwritten numerals used in Western countries have two common forms:

"In-line" or "full-height" form is similar to that used on typewriters and is taught in North America; in this form all numerals have the same height as the majuscule alphabet (i.e. the capital letters).

In "old style" text figures, numerals 0, 1 and 2 are x-height; numerals 6 and 8 have bowls within x-height, plus ascenders; numerals 3, 5, 7 and 9 have descenders from x-height, with 3 resembling ʒ; and the numeral 4 extends a short distance both up and down from x-height. Old-style numerals are often used by British presses.

Aside from these two main forms, other regional variations abound.

The numeral 0: Some writers put a diagonal slash through the numeral 0 (zero), a practice that was used on some early, low-resolution computer terminals which displayed a slashed "zero" glyph to distinguish it from the capital letter O. This practice conflicts with the use of the letter "Ø" in the Danish and Norwegian languages. Forms that avoid this confusion include:

a dot placed in the centre of zero

the use of a tick, that is, a slash that does not cross the entire bowl of the figure, but lies completely in the upper right

a form found in Germany with a vertical slash

a form with a slash from upper left to lower right.

Confusion between the numeral 0 and the letter O can also be resolved by using a script letter O (with a loop at the top).

The numeral 1: This numeral is sometimes written with a serif at the top extending downward and to the left.