# So, whose signature can you copy perfectly. Can anyone do yours? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222 "2012-08-11T22:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/1 "2012-08-11T22:41:41Z")
Well, I can copy my parents signatures rather well. Came in useful in school when bad test results needed signing. Life skill all kids need to know.😃 And I think I can copy my late grandmothers as well. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/2 "2012-08-11T23:03:31Z")
I can’t even copy my own signature. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/3 "2012-08-12T00:02:39Z")
I have that problem too, Emily. 🙂 At least mine includes recognizable English letters. DH’s looks like an EEG. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/4 "2012-08-12T01:35:34Z")
My father and I had identical handwriting. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/5 "2012-08-12T01:44:05Z")
My mother’s handwriting is impossible to duplicate. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/6 "2012-08-12T01:52:14Z")
I doubt I can copy anybody’s all that reliably, although attempting to copy a signature style once I was surprised how close I came on the first try. Mine is consistent, unreadable, and would be very tough to duplicate. But election records and bank records have shown it to be very consistent for over 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/7 "2012-08-12T01:59:28Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I can’t even copy my own signature. ditto. 😛 I have, quite seriously, often worried that my signature would not match whatever’s on my license/credit card/what-have-you. Because it’s just that dorky no matter what. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/8 "2012-08-12T02:13:30Z")
My mothers. Sometime around the age of 12 I got a copy of her signature and practiced it. Never knew when it might come in handy. My father would have me forge her name on joint checks. She knew of course, that way he could go to the bank and cash it without waiting for her to come home. I’m surprised that my son can’t forge my name. He’s 17, he should have learned how years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/9 "2012-08-12T02:16:50Z")
I don’t know of anyone that has been able to do my signature. I constantly get on my husband to practice, but it’s nowhere close yet. That said, my signature looks like someone was trying to design a roller coaster and had a mini-stroke halfway through. I can do my mother’s, my aunt’s, my best friend’s, and my husband’s signatures. I can reproduce my mother’s handwriting nearly as well and as quickly as I write myself, but I haven’t been able to get my husband’s or best friend’s handwriting down yet. My aunt I don’t actually have to worry about, as her handwriting and mine are identical, which is really freaking weird to me. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/10 "2012-08-12T02:52:34Z")
I learned to do a former boss’s signature once, at her request. She and another researcher were doing a big, long-running study in which the participants were often sent letters updating them on the study’s progress. They didn’t want the impersonal look of signature stampers but didn’t want to be the ones to hand-sign a few hundred letters every few months. This was back in the late '80s/early '90s, so I don’t know how available/expensive those automated signature machine things were. Whatever the cost, it was cheaper to get a few of your undergrad research workers to sit down and learn a signature then sign for you over a day or three. I don’t know if anyone can do my signature. It’s pretty long and looping, and somewhat legible. ---
**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/11 "2012-08-12T04:30:35Z")
I have never tried to copy a signature. Mine never looks the same twice. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/12 "2012-08-12T05:25:23Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I can’t even copy my own signature. > [@Seanette](#): > > I have that problem too, Emily. 🙂 > [@Taomist](#): > > ditto. 😛 I have, quite seriously, often worried that my signature would not match whatever’s on my license/credit card/what-have-you. Because it’s just that dorky no matter what. > [@\_Olive](#): > > Mine never looks the same twice. Huh—so it’s not just me. I’ve never understood why my signature never looks the same way twice when everybody else I know has a signature that looks exactly the same over and over again. I remember once reading here that you don’t actually have to have a signature. You can just print your name in whatever manual script you acquired growing up. Can you just have a stamp made and carry it around with you wherever you go? There was an article on [CNN.com](http://CNN.com) a few days ago that said that now there are kids who can’t even write, because it’s no longer universally taught in school. What are they going to do for a sig when they grow up? ---
**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/13 "2012-08-12T06:44:54Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Huh—so it’s not just me. I’ve never understood why my signature never looks the same way twice when everybody else I know has a signature that looks exactly the same over and over again. I remember once reading here that you don’t actually have to have a signature. You can just print your name in whatever manual script you acquired growing up. Can you just have a stamp made and carry it around with you wherever you go? There was an article on [CNN.com](http://CNN.com) a few days ago that said that now there are kids who can’t even write, because it’s no longer universally taught in school. What are they going to do for a sig when they grow up? Fingerprint or eye detection would be my guess. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/14 "2012-08-12T14:22:03Z")
My mother’s, but as grades didn’t require signing and cheques are rarely used in Spain it’s not a very useful skill. I don’t know of anybody who can do my squiggle. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/15 "2012-08-12T14:37:03Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I can’t even copy my own signature. Same here. My initials are generally consistent enough that most of the few people who actually give a damn can tell, but the rest is a random squiggle (that I occasionally have to go back and add to so it at least resembles the last random squiggle I did) and a dot that can be just about anywhere in the general vicinity of the where the i it’s nominally attached to should be. What’s annoying is new IDs that require signatures be signed in a ridiculously tiny box…thus rendering them a completely different type of random squiggle than I normally do. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/16 "2012-08-12T14:40:51Z")
Part of my job involves reviewing the documents that one would sign when they get a mortgage. I’m amazed that some people can sign 40 documents and have all of their signatures the same. I have to sign two pages and they look completely different. That being said, I learned early on that if I need my parents signature, all I need is a scribble. There’s not actually some giant school database that checks to make sure it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/17 "2012-08-13T02:37:32Z")
I realised recently that the lady above me on the creche signin list (both B\_ names) has a signature that’s pretty much indistinguishable from mine (ie, totally unreadable squiggle with a B in the middle). So yeah, we could totally forge each other’s signatures without half trying. Even we probably wouldn’t spot the difference ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-whose-signature-can-you-copy-perfectly-can-anyone-do-yours/631222/18 "2012-08-13T03:00:14Z")
Not perfectly, but I can do a pretty good copy of my mom’s. Not only have I seen it roughly one jillion times, but I may or may not have forged it a few times when I was a kid. Pretty much anyone who can write can copy mine, as it consists of my initials only.