International reference atlas
A person may form one letter several ways even within one sentence. Comparison needs a range of examples rather than the nearest match.
Handwriting and graphology
Look at repeated letters in similar conditions, at the start and at the end of words. Record the recurring forms, the rarer forms and any change when a letter joins its neighbour.
If a questioned signature has a long finishing stroke, look for the range of lengths in writing of known origin. A single short example is too little to establish that another person made the longer stroke.
Graphology associates handwriting with personality. Each proposed link needs an independent test of its predictive value.
Handwriting and graphologyExaminers consider how a stroke travels, breaks and changes along its path. With a photograph the first question is which details the image actually retains.
Handwriting and graphologyA useful sample has a known writer and contains material comparable with the questioned passage.
Graphologist Israel