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Comment by jandrese | Hacker News Reader

I went to college before laptops were affordable to college students, so all of my notes were still on paper. I found that I had to write them in manuscript if I wanted to be able to read them later, plus it was faster than writing the cursive anyway.

It always seemed to me that cursive was optimized for quill or fountain pens and was kind of counterproductive if you had a pencil or a ballpoint pen. I found it far too easy for words to devolve into just a bunch of loops with cursive.

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>>By the time that I had covered two sides of a small piece of stationery, my letters tended to get sloppier, and my right hand was cramping.

>It always seemed to me that cursive was optimized for quill or fountain pens

Definitely agree, cursive felt only marginally nicer to use than printing until I used a fountain pen; with one, it is faster and more physically comfortable (in addition to being more fun and prettier). Anyone here who is still attached to cursive is strongly recommended to buy a cheap fountain pen.

Any brand preference? The varieties of "cheap" are many.

A $25 Lamy Safari has done well for me for the last 4 years.

Start with the Lamy or Pelikan pens that are mandatory in German schools. They have very stiff nibs which won't break if you apply the same pressure you're used to with a byro/ball point or pencil. You can get them in the US. There are fun ones made of wood with brightly colored caps and ends.

Once you are used to them you can use a more expensive (or cheapo) pen with a softer nib. That well let you write both more clearly and much much faster.

Note that a lot of fancy fountain pens are (IMHO) way too heavy and clunky for everyday writing.

I can take notes with a fountain pen way faster than with a byro and the resulting ones are more legible (I have dreadful handwriting). Also I can write this way for hours without cramping which I can't say about a byro since those require more pressure and use push strokes.

If I don't have a fountain pen I have some Stabilo gel pens that are the least crappy alternative. The fountain pen is pretty well adapted to handwriting. I prefer to type but there are many cases where that is an inferior option.

> It always seemed to me that cursive was optimized for quill or fountain pens and was kind of counterproductive if you had a pencil or a ballpoint pen.

That's true of the Palmer method and related cursives most American students learn. The letterforms which are so odd with a ballpoint pen actually derive from sensible hand-, wrist- and arm-movements when using a fountain pen.

I use a variant of Getty-Dubay Italic (http://www.handwritingsuccess.com/), which is eminently readable and quite quick to write.

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