how do you write your FOUR

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open or closed?

Poll Results

OptionVotes
http://i40.tinypic.com/9t2821.gif 79
http://i42.tinypic.com/2pra0s3.gif 23


asplundh tree expert co. (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:14 (seventeen years ago)

open

TAT THY SAD EAGLE (ENBB), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:15 (seventeen years ago)

IV

man saves ducklings from (ledge), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:18 (seventeen years ago)

had to check this. first one, although i alternate quite a bit

U2 raped goat (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:19 (seventeen years ago)

I'm an open-fourer myself, but I'm thinking about making the switch to closed. Not having to pick up my pen (or pencil) to draw the stem seems like it might be able to save me a few minutes of free time that I can enjoy when I'm retired.

asplundh tree expert co. (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:19 (seventeen years ago)

I do open, but always wanted to do closed. Maybe if I win the lottery.

Bathtime at the Apollo (G00blar), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:20 (seventeen years ago)

i considered the switch but my 4 looked too big, my hand wasn't used to writing it and i lost control

harbl, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:20 (seventeen years ago)

All typefaces everywhere (except for Comic Sans, probably) use closed. 4, see? What do these font designers know that I don't know?

asplundh tree expert co. (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:21 (seventeen years ago)

love the idea of g00blar always wanting to write a closed 4 but never being rich enough.

re- printing open 4, in fairness the use of the 'a' is much stranger. who uses that in handwriting?

U2 raped goat (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:22 (seventeen years ago)

my boss. he puts little horizontal lines through his 7s too

asplundh tree expert co. (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:24 (seventeen years ago)

^ I do that!

TAT THY SAD EAGLE (ENBB), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:25 (seventeen years ago)

open but closed 4 is definitely 'nicer'

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:25 (seventeen years ago)

i think i do that too.

wait a minute, are we saying that everyone writes DIFFERENT? this is important stuff, people

U2 raped goat (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:25 (seventeen years ago)

i write my a's that way, and i also put a cross through the 7

i also do closed 4s

i also - and this is weird - start my 9's at the bottom, and end them in the loop

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:26 (seventeen years ago)

^that's what I'm sayin xp

Bathtime at the Apollo (G00blar), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:27 (seventeen years ago)

Looked at my fours on the page here:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/MarkGrout/four.gif

Like this. Which is more the first one, right?

Mark G, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:27 (seventeen years ago)

closed '4' can be written top down in two strokes (just like the open version) or bottom up in one stroke. the former seems a bit pointless but the latter a bit weird - all other numbers are written top down. except for tracer's 9s.

man saves ducklings from (ledge), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:27 (seventeen years ago)

I looking at the different ways people write things. I wish more ppl had posted on this thread:

Post your handwriting and then someone else on here who knows better analyse it.

TAT THY SAD EAGLE (ENBB), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:28 (seventeen years ago)

Mark G, that's the rare "open closed" four, you must be ambidextrous too

asplundh tree expert co. (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:29 (seventeen years ago)

x-post err I "love" looking at . . .

TAT THY SAD EAGLE (ENBB), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:29 (seventeen years ago)

my 9's are p's backwards. i was never happy with my aesthetically repulsive curves, and greatly envy those that can carry it off.

doing it upside down is just showing off though.

U2 raped goat (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:29 (seventeen years ago)

start from top left: 2, 3, 4, 7, 5 (i add the top horizontal line last tho)
start from top right: 6, 9

0 and 8 start from top middle going anti-clockwise

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:30 (seventeen years ago)

mark that's a closed 4 with a little flair

i copied my 9s from a girl i was in love with in 8th grade. it is a little showoffy and unnecessary. but i loved the way they looked. it's easier to make the stem of the 9 curve as it does in typography if you start at the bottom. your stroke has to go backwards for awhile which is weird, but you end up with your pen going forward, ready for whatever comes next

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:31 (seventeen years ago)

sometimes i like to mix it up crazy and do a double loop of the 9 circle before ending with the straight vertical line down (no bottom curve for me)

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:32 (seventeen years ago)

why on earth would you do that

Unclench, y'all, unclench (HI DERE), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:32 (seventeen years ago)

I write my 4 like Mark G.

Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:33 (seventeen years ago)

Mark G, that's the rare "open closed" four, you must be ambidextrous too

― asplundh tree expert co. (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:29 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Nope, very right-handed.

Mark G, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:33 (seventeen years ago)

haha what? xps

Bathtime at the Apollo (G00blar), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:33 (seventeen years ago)

Closed 4, always put a line through my 7's, in respect of my really really distant Spanish ancestory.

Orin Boyd (jel --), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:33 (seventeen years ago)

people that put the hook and serif on a 1 probably also do anal retentive stuff like not bite their toenails when company's over

asplundh tree expert co. (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:35 (seventeen years ago)

i think of the hook on the 1 as guaranteed proof of europeanness

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:38 (seventeen years ago)

dutch do the hook but not the seriph, AFAICT

U2 raped goat (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:38 (seventeen years ago)

and many of the eastern european countries also- they have great handwriting, all these extra details.

U2 raped goat (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:39 (seventeen years ago)

damn, actually, open 4. I kinda like the hook and serif on a 1 and a 10, but not on a 11-9.

Orin Boyd (jel --), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:40 (seventeen years ago)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Kark92.JPG/100px-Kark92.JPG

•--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:46 (seventeen years ago)

http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/e3zUnr-24rg/hqdefault.jpg

•--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:46 (seventeen years ago)

I'm trying real hard to find it, but Channel 4 anchors used to sit at a desk that was shaped like a closed #4.

•--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:47 (seventeen years ago)

i also - and this is weird - start my 9's at the bottom, and end them in the loop

i do this too!

otherwise, closed 4s, no lines through 7s, sans serif 1s.

lex pretend, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:48 (seventeen years ago)

Open 4, and I add lines through my 7s and Zs

ti's girl on the outside (musically), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:51 (seventeen years ago)

i've started adding umlauts to things willy-nilly

Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:52 (seventeen years ago)

this is how i write my 4

http://www.thefreshscent.com/wp-content/post_imgs/0507/420themovie.jpg

s1ocki, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:52 (seventeen years ago)

taught myself to go closed 4 in 7th grade and never looked back

unattainable panini (jjjusten), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:54 (seventeen years ago)

inspirational speeches of our time

U2 raped goat (darraghmac), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 16:54 (seventeen years ago)

I'm more interested in a sevens poll. Who adds a little dash on the stem? I know I do! otherwise it looks too much like a one.

my ghost ixi wants to read more books (Viceroy), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:00 (seventeen years ago)

or a two

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:02 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=farty%20four

bnw, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:02 (seventeen years ago)

i regret never having cultivated a habit of making the top curve of my 3s a sharp, tight little spike, as in some of our more distinguished typefaces

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:05 (seventeen years ago)

I used to do that, up until I realized that it looked dumb in my handwriting (ie, fifth grade).

Unclench, y'all, unclench (HI DERE), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:06 (seventeen years ago)

one day in geometry class I decided to switch to closed 4s and european 7s. never looked back.

I managed to switch rather effortlessly...I think I just practiced writing a page of closed-4s and that was it?

iatee, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:09 (seventeen years ago)

Loops on 2's.

Orin Boyd (jel --), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:12 (seventeen years ago)

- I write an open four, which is probably good, because a closed one could get confused with a crossed sevens

- My crossing sevens is, amazingly enough, not an affectation; the fact that I write lowercase A in the type style is

- (Around whatever high-school period I re-learned lowercase A, I also tried to learn to write lowercase G in a type style, which would have been totally sweet, but that is like near-impossible to learn to do smoothly by hand)

nabisco, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:31 (seventeen years ago)

i do the lowercase g thing

god i am vain

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:33 (seventeen years ago)

it goes - one circle, short stick to the right, big oval that drops down, take pen off paper and add the little stick at the top right

Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:34 (seventeen years ago)

Any reason I changed how I write my letters or numbers was so I cld keep things straight when working on math or chemistry.

cant go with u too many alfbrees (Abbott), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:35 (seventeen years ago)

It always took me like 20 seconds of concentrated thoughts to make one that didn't wind up looking like a malformed 8, and then even if I succeeded it would leap out of the rest of the text as the letter that someone was obviously slaving over for pretentious effect. Maybe I will give it another shot when I retire.

nabisco, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:36 (seventeen years ago)

(xpost) It's quite interesting how fancy one's cursive i can get after a few semesters of college math... not to mention the {} brackets.

my ghost ixi wants to read more books (Viceroy), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:38 (seventeen years ago)

I put a lot of love & labor into figuring out how to draw the ampersand back in seventh grade. So worth it.

cant go with u too many alfbrees (Abbott), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:43 (seventeen years ago)

I bet I know where this is all going: Post your handwriting and then someone else on here who knows better analyse it.

•--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 17:44 (seventeen years ago)

closed 4 def but i like to detail my #s - serif 1, dashed 7, put diagonal thru 0 - also do the typeface style a cant remember when i started that but it was probably an affectation at first now its def w/o thinking

Lamp, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 18:03 (seventeen years ago)

I worried as a child about those double-closed-loop "g"s since they are sort of backwards from the one-loop "g"s. I think I toyed with the idea of writing them but couldn't quite get them uniform. Guy I copied my notes from at university wrote his "a"s with the overhead loop and I was somewhat in awe of this but it looked kind of untidy even when he did it.

1 = straight line unless I'm writing a postcode and fear AMBIGUITY. Then I think I'll put a little tiny serif on and it always gets too big and looks weird and wish I hadn't tried it. It's not like it is actually ambiguous seeing as the wrong version wouldn't fit the correct format.

Oh... open 4.

a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 18:46 (seventeen years ago)

hahaha, I say highway farty far! Of course, I'm from St. Louis, so..

open four, btw

ya'll are the ones who don't know things (Z S), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 18:51 (seventeen years ago)

normally open but I have a volunteer gig where I have to fill out forms that require the closed version to scan properly. forms also require that I write my sevens differently (normally put a cross through and have a little thingie hanging off the top bit).

quincie, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 19:09 (seventeen years ago)

Closed 4, now and forever. 4 was my favourite number even before I started school, and it fascinated me that there were two ways to draw them. I just preferred the look of the closed 4, and was subsequently mildly rebuked by the kindergarten teacher for drawing one on the blackboard instead of the closed-variety she'd asked for and expected. (To her credit, she admitted that my way was perfectly legit, and never discouraged its use again.)

I wish he hadn't adapted my critique of his "ilxor" moniker (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, 28 May 2009 22:37 (seventeen years ago)

open - closed sometimes gets confused with 9 if you aren't neat.

Subtlest Fart Joke (Oilyrags), Thursday, 28 May 2009 22:56 (seventeen years ago)

open 4, always cross a seven

i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Thursday, 28 May 2009 22:59 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Thursday, 28 May 2009 23:01 (seventeen years ago)

Open 4s. SO with Abbott on the pleasure of a well-draw ampersand. (There's a whole blog about them here: http://ampersand.gosedesign.net/ )

I realised recently that I've been doing 8s as two separate circles, rather than in one go. I don't know how this happened.

James Morrison, Thursday, 28 May 2009 23:24 (seventeen years ago)

1 = straight line unless I'm writing a postcode and fear AMBIGUITY. Then I think I'll put a little tiny serif on and it always gets too big and looks weird and wish I hadn't tried it.

mmhmm, it ends up being too much like a seven so I do the line underneath too and it looks like who knows what. Ah we..

Looking through my notepad it seems that I alternate between open 4 and closed 4, although the left hand line in the open four varies between vertical and very nearly touching the right hand line.

Like, (Expletive) my (expletive). (Merdeyeux), Friday, 29 May 2009 09:36 (seventeen years ago)

er, well, not we..

that's what happens when your writing's going off the screen for some reason.

Like, (Expletive) my (expletive). (Merdeyeux), Friday, 29 May 2009 09:37 (seventeen years ago)

Tracer Handwriting is very nice. Most of my other male friends with nice writing are kind of obsessed by fonts or are artist/architect/whatever.

I'm left-handed and a design stan so a lot of my handwriting is very typefacey: often a serif on the 1 on top, but never a bar, a typefacey a most of the time (it totally depends on the letter coming afterward), 3 that looks like half a triangle atop half a circle, 4 is always closed. Had years of practice because my childhood address was 4313. I cross 7 because that makes phone numbers with lots of 7s and 1s in them nice and unambiguous.

don't fear the freeper (suzy), Friday, 29 May 2009 11:47 (seventeen years ago)

i write an open four but the motion of writing it is like a capital G - no picking the pen up off the page. Line through sevens, sans serif ones.

my lowercase 'g's are like superscript 's's or incomplete figure eights - i've only met one other person who does this.

la belle dame sans serif (c sharp major), Friday, 29 May 2009 12:03 (seventeen years ago)

so who writes '5' with the 'top hat' added on last ?

Ant Attack.. (Ste), Friday, 29 May 2009 12:33 (seventeen years ago)

Spent last summer typing hundreds of pages of hand-written numbers where the author had done this (very obviously, as usually the top bar was dangling unconnected somewhere to the right of the rest of the 5) and was a bit mystified as it'd never occurred to me before.

a passing spacecadet, Friday, 29 May 2009 12:44 (seventeen years ago)

never occurred to me to do it any other way. It's not an 'S'. Ugh, I've just tried it - how uncouth.

man saves ducklings from (ledge), Friday, 29 May 2009 13:07 (seventeen years ago)

I used to do mostly open 4s until I started doing Sudoku on the DS and had to do closed 4s for Dr Kawashima to recognise. Now it's closed 4s all the way.

go and put your f'kin torn jeans on (onimo), Friday, 29 May 2009 13:43 (seventeen years ago)

so who writes '5' with the 'top hat' added on last ?

always!

Tracer Hand, Friday, 29 May 2009 13:59 (seventeen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Friday, 29 May 2009 23:01 (seventeen years ago)


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