handwriting and smearing solutions query

There have been past threads about lefties having troubles
using FPs. Different solutions are used by some. For instance,
special postures are adopted sometimes to avoid smearing the
still drying ink. But it seems many won't even attempt FPs
because of the problems. That got me to thinking.

What solutions were, or are, employed by those whose writing
system is from right to left, e.g., hebrew or arabic? At one
time, steel pens and FPs were the only game in town. Since the
vast majority of us are righties, that meant most everyone had
to deal with the smearing problem. Did, or do, they adopt the
same types of solutions as lefties writing in most Western
languages, or did they use other methods to avoid smearing?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Mark Z.

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:39:18 -0700, mz
wrote:

Did, or do, they adopt the
same types of solutions as lefties writing in most Western
languages, or did they use other methods to avoid smearing?

Part of the issue is the righty hand position in Western cursive. With
Chinese (which doesn't have the issue, as you go down first), the
preferred hand position in the days of brushes and fountain pens
started with the brush position and was much more lifted. Contact with
the paper was not as close to the fresh inked part, if at all.

Wonder if that has something to do with the solution. Most of the
leftie solutions I've read seem to try to recreate the righty method,
but twisted or cramped in, not off the paper entirely.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

When I right Persian, I write normally and don't have any smearing problems.
I never could understand the lefty smearing thing. When I write my hand is
below the writing.
Richard
"mz" wrote in message
...
There have been past threads about lefties having troubles
using FPs. Different solutions are used by some. For instance,
special postures are adopted sometimes to avoid smearing the
still drying ink. But it seems many won't even attempt FPs
because of the problems. That got me to thinking.

What solutions were, or are, employed by those whose writing
system is from right to left, e.g., hebrew or arabic? At one
time, steel pens and FPs were the only game in town. Since the
vast majority of us are righties, that meant most everyone had
to deal with the smearing problem. Did, or do, they adopt the
same types of solutions as lefties writing in most Western
languages, or did they use other methods to avoid smearing?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Mark Z.

Curtis L. Russell wrote:
On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:39:18 -0700, mz
wrote:


Did, or do, they adopt the
same types of solutions as lefties writing in most Western
languages, or did they use other methods to avoid smearing?


Part of the issue is the righty hand position in Western cursive. With
Chinese (which doesn't have the issue, as you go down first), the
preferred hand position in the days of brushes and fountain pens
started with the brush position and was much more lifted. Contact with
the paper was not as close to the fresh inked part, if at all.

SNIP
Pictures from the Western Middle Ages of scribes writing show a
pen hold with the hand entirely off the writing material. I
wonder when resting the hand on the paper came in?