Regional handwriting variation

Although people in many parts of the world share common alphabets and numeral systems (versions of the Latin writing system are used throughout the Americas, Australia, and much of Europe and Africa; the Hindu-Arabic numerals are nearly universal), styles of handwritten letterforms vary between individuals, and sometimes also vary systematically between regions.

The handwritten numerals used in Western countries have two common forms:

Aside from these two main forms, other regional variations abound.

The numeral 0 — Some writers put a diagonal slash through the numeral 0 (zero), a practice that was used on some early, low-resolution computer terminals which displayed a slashed "zero" glyph to distinguish it from the capital letter O. This practice conflicts with the use of the letter "Ø" in the Danish and Norwegian languages, and the empty set character "∅" used in set theory. Forms that avoid confusion with Danish include:

Confusion between the numeral 0 and the letter O can be resolved by using a script letter O (with a loop at the top), and leaving the numeral 0 without embellishments; this was a common practice before use of the slashed zero became the norm

The numeral 1 — This numeral is sometimes written with a serif at the top extending downward and to the left. People in some parts of Europe extend this stroke nearly the whole distance to the baseline. It is sometimes written with horizontal serifs at the base; without them it can resemble the shape of the numeral 7, which has a near-vertical stroke without a crossbar, and a shorter horizontal top stroke. This numeral is often written as a plain vertical line without an ear at the top; this form is easily confused with the capital letter I and with the lower-case letter L.

The numeral 2 — In the U.S., Germany and Austria a "curly" version used to be taught and is still used by many in handwriting. This 2 can be confused with a capital script Q, or a letter Z. It appears as ɚ.

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