Google announced a new app earlier today, called Google Handwriting Input.
Only available for Android so far, it allows users to write on a touchscreen — smartphone or tablet, with or without a stylus — then interprets the handwriting into standard digital text. It can interpret 82 different languages, in cursive or print, and it can even detect emojis.
This is quite the juxtaposition when you consider that technology, computer keyboards and mobile devices in particular, are the most likely culprits why handwriting and good penmanship seem to be going the way of the dodo bird.
With recent legislation efforts you may have read about, mandates to teach cursive writing in school, and related press about the lost art of handwriting…
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/04/07/cursive-handwriting-requirement.html
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/07/living/artist-lost-notes-uk-exhibition-irpt/
…it got us thinking:
In a world where the written word is less and less “written” and more and more “typed” on a tactile keyboard or touchscreen “keypad,” what might your handwriting style say about you?
Check out this fun exercise from Real Simple Magazine which tests just that, and also provides tips on how to improve your handwriting. Note: you have to write a sample of text in 100% cursive style to evaluate their criteria. If you’re like me and often write with a mix of both cursive and print — apparently more than two-thirds of people do — you may wonder if you could go back to grade school to benefit from a handwriting class yourself. I know I could.
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