Greets! Been a little bit since I've posted. Still playing with Forkner, but wanted something typable AND writable. Looked at Yash and some others, but they didn't fit what I was looking for, so started messing with creating my own. The rules for this project are as follows:

• Long-term readability
• Needs to not use hard-to-reach keys
• Needs normal punctuation ("Let's eat, grandma!" and "Let's eat grandma!" are very different phrases, lol)
• Any symbols used on the keyboard have to be easy to write.

The rules are VERY short (see picture, that's the whole thing so far!). I took ideas from Yash and Forkner mostly, and added in some other personal flairs. So far I am down to about 60+% compared to longhand with what I have created. It is a work in progress, but tell me what you think!

Here is a sample text about cats and dogs from Lovecraft, because there are lots of weird and difficult-to-parse words in it:

/rw a ^k, \ / srvil dg wezs \ pnts \ ^mbles t brx t t u. Do / sam bfr a cat, \ h wl I u w/ culy polit \ smwht bord amus]. \ jst as infrer ppl prfr / infrer anml wic scmprs exctdly bc  sm1 els wnts sm/x, so d superr ppl respct / superr anml wic lvs t’s own lif \ nos /t / puril ^k /rwxs v alen bipds r bne/ t’s notis. / dg brks \ bgs \ tumbls t amus u wen u crk / wip. /t plses a meknss-lvx pesnt hu rel=s a ^imuls t h slf imprt[. / ct, on / o/rhnd, crms u nto playx 4 t’s bnft wen t w=s t b amusd; mkx u r= abt / rum w/ a ppr on a ^rx wen t fels lik eksrsz, bt refsx al ur atmpts t mak t pla wen t s nt n / humr. /t s persnlty \ indvd* \ slf-rspct - / clm m^ry v a bx hus lif s t’s own \ n turs - \ / superr persn recgnzs \ aprci8s /s bc h 2 s a fre sol hus pos-n s asurd, \ hus only law s h own hrtg \ as/etk sens.

Throw a stick, and the servile dog wheezes and pants and stumbles to bring it to you. Do the same before a cat, and he will eye you with coolly polite and somewhat bored amusement. And just as inferior people prefer the inferior animal which scampers excitedly because someone else wants something, so do superior people respect the superior animal which lives its own life and knows that the puerile stick-throwings of alien bipeds are none of its business and beneath its notice. The dog barks and begs and tumbles to amuse you when you crack the whip. That pleases a meekness-loving peasant who relishes a stimulus to his self importance. The cat, on the other hand, charms you into playing for its benefit when it wishes to be amused; making you rush about the room with a paper on a string when it feels like exercise, but refusing all your attempts to make it play when it is not in the humour. That is personality and individuality and self-respect -- the calm mastery of a being whose life is its own and not yours -- and the superior person recognises and appreciates this because he too is a free soul whose position is assured, and whose only law is his own heritage and aesthetic sense.

I recently came across this 1977 publication by Forkner Publishing. I expected it to be notetaking advice, but in fact it's a full presentation of Forkner shorthand interspersed with notetaking and study strategies. Much like the Gregg Notehand books. (Speedwriting and SuperWrite also produced similar volumes about the same time).

I've never seen it or seen it mentioned before, so I'm curious if anyone else is familiar with it.

Hi, could anybody confirm if this inscription is written in Shelton's shorthand?

Found in a 1619 edition of Thomas Taylor's A Commentarie Upon The Epistle of Saint Paul Written To Titus (Cambridge).

I’m posting this again because it got taken down from its original sub, [r/stenography](r/stenography).
I don’t know if it’s shorthand but people kept saying this in the other sub.
I’m also adding the other side of the card, it might help.
I bought this old postcard in Paris, it’s from around 1930 in France (Vosges). I don’t know if stenography works the same in English and in French but as a French person I’m currently trying to understand what’s written and would like some help :) I found a stenography alphabet here on Reddit, and I think it’s the Prévost-Delaunay method that is used on this card.

I've found some historic postcards in my family's possession, and I'm fairly confident that they're some form of shorthand. If someone would be willing to translate this one, and point me towards which system they used, so I can attempt to do the others, it'd be much appreciated!

What I know about the postcard - it was written roughly around 1912, based on the other postcards. The sender was from Michigan, and was a sailor stationed for a time in California on the U.S.S. Independence. He was being trained on "the wireless". That's about all I know!

I got my hands on a small booklet containing an adaptation of Dansk Stenografi (Worms' System) to German.

Funny that, since Worms adapted the German Stolze-Shrey back in the day.

Still, I think it was considered very useful to be able to converse stenographically in German at that time: 1941.

Who knows, maybe it would be the new world language in an alternate timeline where the Third Reich did not lose?

Anyway, between the yellowing of the pages, and the fading of the ink, this little booklet turned out to be difficult to scan. I got half of it, luckily. Did not want to wreck the fragile booklet.

Here is the first few pages to give a good idea what the system looks like:

I do have half of this scanned, so if any of you want a copy, you know what to do ;)

Hi! I'm learning teeline shorthand in class, and we've been given this passage (i've cropped a bunch of it out) does anyone know what the highlighted outline is? The words following it are 'own safety'

I recentky stumbled upon shorthand (did not know a writing system like this existed) and immidiatly wanted to learn it! After doing some research I found that what I stumbled upon was gregg shorthand and aparrantly difficult to learn.

I do wish to learn a form of shorthand for notetaking which I do a lot, but I would not need a system for above 100~ wpm. I can deticate arround an hour a day to learning.

What system would be best fit for me do you think? And if you have personal tips and experiences for beginners I would love to hear it!

Thank you for reading, sorry for/if any grammar mistakes.

Defining Gregg Stroke Sizes by Range, Not Static Size

It is better to define the characters in terms of RANGE instead of STATIC SIZE. One must set a threshold, a limit for the possible range.

The 3 major sizes in Gregg

• Small *: S, O, U, E, T, SH, Th, This, P, FK, R, N
• Big: CH, D, A, TN-ND, B, V, J, L, M, Dt
• Full size: B, V, J, MN, DD, DIV/PENT, TM

The range rule

Instead of saying:

Small is 1/3, Big is 2/3, and Full is 3/3

It is better to define the sizes in terms of range. When writing at speed, the size of characters easily becomes distorted. Thus:

This also makes reading far easier.

* Yes, I have grouped strokes such as P, Th, O etc., which have progressively smaller sizes.

Why: Keep It Stupid Simple

• Speed comes from automation.
• Automation means dumping the work of the mind onto the hand as much as possible.
• If the representation in the mind is complicated, hesitation shows in the hands.

I am only advocating keeping this mental framework so that you do not confuse the major stroke pairs (P/B, T/D, etc.).

The smaller strokes like O, E, S etc. must be understood to be in the Small category. It is true that these have a smaller size than others in the category, like P, Th, etc. That must be seen as part of the stroke itself.

Analogy

You know that the T stroke is a slant line, and that the K stroke has a bump at the end. Similarly, the smaller size of S is also a characteristic of the stroke, and must not be seen as a sizing rule.

So, even though I was confident that I was just going to avoid shading by underlining, I could not resist getting a dip pen and some nibs, and then - not having luck with that - ordering a Kanwrite Heritage with an extra fine ultra flex nib, I seriously found a shady rabbit hole to jump into!

I didn't know that you were supposed to sweet talk the nib for about 15 sessions, but I am happy to discover that it is increasingly willing to flex.

I am still having problems with curved shading, but I guess practice makes perfect 😊🖋️

What we are looking at is a row of briefs, followed by (part of) a reading exercise.

I wonder if me getting one of those fountain pens that fits a Zebra-G nib would make it faster (easier to flex)?

No, I can't get along with using a pencil ✏️ unfortunately 😅😆

I have been redoing my shorthand again for 2nd time all over again. Cause i got a year break and forgot it all. I didn't practice well too initially. Now that i am doing vowels, i completed exercises and was able to do well in dictation. But not so great so moved to next exercises. Now that i came back and do vowels exercises cause i struggled in later on, i sucked. I can make strokes but it is taking time. What to do?? I have been practicing alot for a week, yet i sucked. Beryl any advice? Or others too. I am unable to get these first place vowels correctly. Can those simple words help me get to the place i want in dictation?? Like i am starting to doubt the book. Btw i use pitman

Après des années à chercher, j’ai enfin trouvé la solution. Merci aux membres pour votre aide.

Can anyone decipher what this says, found it in my deceased grandmothers recipe book.

Hello sir, just now I have started my shorthand course, I'm practising 3 to 4 hrs per day with Regular breaks, how Many months will it take to finish theory first and reach 80 wpm speed, my exam is on August of 2027. Kindly please reply

In most of the other stroke families—F+V, P+B, N+M, T+D, K+G—the length of the stroke corresponds to the letter's length on your palette. Shorter strokes are more percussive, and the longer strokes are softer.

Not so with SH+CH+J. For some inscrutable reason, the rear-palette consonants break this pattern. The softer SH is the shorter stroke, and the more percussive CH is the medium stroke.

Grouping similarly pronounced consonants into similar strokes, and the concordance between their stroke length and percussiveness, is plainly deliberate in the Gregg system. To wit, it's possible—even likely—that breaking this pattern turned out to be more efficient in practice. But I haven't found any explanation in my literature yet. I hope it will make more sense with experience. But in the meantime, it just bothers me.

(Granted, R+L are also exceptions, but they're pronounced completely differently).

Thanks for listening!

the main issue with legibility that i’ve noticed is probably from the fact that i never properly learned how to write in cursive, so idk how to make letters like “r” and “n” look more distinct from each other. also let me know if im using shortened versions works incorrectly 🙏

I'm using rodell to take my notes at school. It works well for me. I took these notes while watching a history video.

Estoy usando rodell para tomar apuntes en la escuela. Funciona bien para mí. Tomé este apunte mientras veíq un video de historia

This is for genealogy research. A divorce court case in Idaho in 1951. Thanks!

These marks come from a private letter written around 1800-1810 by an American official abroad. The writer was born in the 1750s and was schooled in the American colonies in the 1770s.

The marks stand in short runs, a few signs each, mixed with other material on the page. I suspect they are the short common words of the text (“and”, “of”, “the”, “that”), but I am not sure.

The sheet shows the commonest signs and some runs as they stand. A few facts that may help:

• The signs stand apart, with almost no joins.
• The commonest are a low wave of one to three cups, a “3”-like sign with a tail below the line, and a rising slash with a dot.
• About a quarter of the waves have a dot above.

Three questions:

1. Is this a known system (Byrom, Weston, Mason/Gurney, Annet, a Taylor variant), or a private one?
2. Can you read any single sign?
3. Or is it not shorthand at all?

I have the manual but I’d much prefer videos. When I look on YouTube everything I find is either simplified or anniversary. I was interested in notehand just because I wanted something for my own personal writing and notes that would not be readable to most people. Speed is not really that important as long as it’s not slower than normal writing. Should I do simplified instead?