The way I was tought to write my capital J was with a bar on top so it resembled a capital T (in printing, of course). So how do you usually write your capital J?
Also, where did you go to grammar school? I was in Los Angeles… well, a suburb of Los Angeles.
I write them the way we were taught in cursive class, with the big loop on top and bottom. Since my handwriting is so messy, it looks like a bubble-lettered boomerang, if that makes any sense.
Now, what I want to know is if anyone makes their capital Qs cursive style, you know like the weird 2 shape.
I forgot to say that I went to elementary school in Savannah, Georgia, Memphis, TN, and Frankfurt, Germany. I learned to print in Georgia, and I think I learned cursive in Germany, but it was an American school. This was in the early eighties, too, if that makes any difference.
I just press the “J” button, while holding down the “SHIFT” button.
In normal printing, I omit the bar across the top (it saves time), but if I’m doing something unusual, I’ll put the bar on it.
As for cursive, mine look like tatertot’s. And yes, my cursive Q’s (can’t remember the last time I wrote one) have that weird 2 shape.
I went to school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
You know, I almost always write my capital letters in cursive and my lower case letters in a mix of cursive and print, runned together like. Runny print I guess you could call it. I wonder what it means?
Is there a handwriting analyst in the house?
tatertot: I’m sure a graphologist would say something along the lines of, “You’re creative, and definitely a non-conformist.”
My Js in both print and cursive are identical- no cap, deep descender.
When printing, my J looks a lot like the “J” on the Arial font. No top line. When writing, it looks like a loop with a descending line – Like a proper cursive J but without the lower bubble, if that makes sense.
I was just discussing this with some friends a while ago. I am in the habit of making the top bar, but I was experimenting and discovered I really like the way my name looks with a sans-bar J. (My name is Joe. Well, actually Joseph, but only family and friends of the family call me Joseph.)
I always write my Js with the bar across the top.
Even though you didn’t ask for it, here is all of the little details of my handwriting, see if you can relate/compare:
(warning: the following will probably be the most pointless rambling you’ve read in a long time. I’ve got too much free time.)
A: My capitol As are pointy, not round, and my lowercase As are the “non-typewriter” kind. ie:
___ . _____
/ I ____\
| | instead of / |
\___I. \____|.
E: I write it with the middle bar shorter than the other two. I think most people do that.
F: Same.
G: My lowercase g is also the “non-typewriter” kind. ie:
___ . ___ .
/ I / I
| | instead of \___|
\___| /__
| (___)
\___/
I: I almost always cross capitol Is.
J: See above.
L: My lowercase Ls are just vertical lines, not like the way they are typed with the little things on the top & bottom that make them look like a 1.
O: a circle. 
Q: I almost never write in cursive, but I just write my Qs as a circle with a 45° slash through the bottom right side.
R: The bottom “leg” thing comes from the middle, not the left side.
T: My lowercase t has the little curve on the bottom, which is “normal,” but some people just put a cross.
Y: My Ys are funny. The top looks like a squished U (not V), and then it has a line under it.
1: I never write the number 1 as just a line. It always has the underscore and, uh, little flag thingy. It takes a long time to write.
3:
I do it as _ rather than __
_) _/
_) _)
4: I do the “non-typewriter” 4:
| | /|
|-+- instead of /-+-
| |
5: I didn’t do it before, but now I always do it the way they tell you to in school, with the bottom part first and then the top line last. I don’t know why.
7: I don’t cross my 7s. The whole reason people invented the crossed 7 is because it looked too much like a 1, but if you underline the number 1, then you don’t need to cross 7s, and crossing 7s just makes it look more like a 1.
9: I do a counterclockwise circle and then do a diagonal line, rather than a clockwise spiral. Don’t know where I picked that habit up, but it’s the way I’ve always done it.
Wow. I never knew I could write so much, just about my own handwriting. I can’t believe I just wrote almost 2 pages! I feel like such a nerd. Don’t I have anything better to do? I’m wasting my childhood! AHHHHHHHHH!!!
::returns from looking at the preview::
Damn, for some reason, it skips a line whenever I use [ code ].
That took up more space than the entirety of all your other replies combined.
I won’t ever say I can’t write. I just can’t write about anything interesting.
I print my Js with the crossbar. My cursive Js are the same as tatertot’s, with the big loops.
My cursive Qs are just printed Qs. I used to use the real cursive Qs, but they looked weird enough that they bothered me.
Elementary school was split between suburban Detroit (K-1), inner city Toledo (2-5), and rural Pennsylvania (6). I have no idea where I learned what–sixth grade ended 25 years ago.
I noticed that after I got interested in typography, I began writing certain letters and numbers differently. I never crossed my 7s, and my lowercase ts were straight. Now, I cross my 7s and my Z/zs, and my t has a upcurling tail. I also stopped dotting my is and js.
KJ- cool work there!
I write my 3s with the first loop having a little sharper loop than the second one, and the second one is much larger and defined. It’s like the 3 in the font Tekton.
How about capital cursive "F"s? I remember everyone else in my elementary school class preferred this way, which is pretty much a capital cursive “T” with a little notch in the middle:
ffffffffffffffff
f
f
fffff
f
f
f f
fff
Whereas I preferred the one-stroke method:
ffffffffffffffff
f
f
fffffffffff
f f f
f f
f f
fff
Of course, it really doesn’t make a heck of a lot of difference to me these days – I never use cursive except when signing my name, and I don’t have any capital "F"s in my name.
Something wrecked the pictures in my last post, and the system doesn’t seem to want to let me in to edit it. Whatever. When I drew them, they were snappy. Wonderful.
My Fs are 3 separate lines- the top bar, the middle bar, and then the joining vertical line. My capitals are quite plain in comparison to my more ornate lowercase letters and numbers.
Snooooopy brought up the fact that he/she (sorry!) doesn’t often write in cursive. I also only use script when signing something. It made me curious: Who actually writes in cursive more than print?
And BTW, Snooooopy, I did see your work with the Fs. Very nice.