On a personal note, I really despise handwriting documents. Writing for an extended period inevitably results in uncomfortable cramps in my hands. Thus, I typeset whenever possible (markdown -> pandoc -> LaTeX -> pdf). However, for taking notes in ad hoc situations, handwriting is so much easier. I recently got the 10.5" iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil and I _love_ it for writing notes for classes especially. I also keep a stack of engineering paper around for doodling out problems I'm working on. At least for me, handwriting is still an integral part of my workflow even if it's not my favorite.

> On a personal note, I really despise handwriting documents. Writing for an extended period inevitably results in uncomfortable cramps in my hands

You want a fountain pen! And for anyone else interested in handwriting more, I recommend taking up fountain pens as a hobby. It's fairly inexpensive to get into, as hobbies go (though of course you can spend unhealthy sums at the top end), and I have done a lot more handwriting since I took it up, to generally positive results.

The main reason they are so nice is that, compared to a pencil or especially a ballpoint pen, a good fountain pen requires very little pressure to write with, and so results in much less pain and cramping in the hands. I can write multiple A5 pages with a fountain pen and not even notice, whereas with a ballpoint pen my hand starts to hurt after about ten sentences.

I actually have two Lamy Al star pens, though I haven't really used them as much as I'd like. Thanks for the reminder!

I recently saw an old-time guide to handwriting; it started with the explanation that many people have too much tension when they write (even in facial muscles) and that the right way is to be very much relaxed so the writing just flows out. (Naturally, it implied using a fountain pen, not something you have to press down to write.) This coincides very much with other "right ways" I know about in dancing and other physical activities - too much tension is a very common habit among people.

A lovely review, thanks for posting. Reminds me of this beautiful, longer essay on the death of handwriting (written by the obituaries editor of the economist): https://www.1843magazine.com/content/ideas/ann-wroe/handwrit...

"when no one need be judged by the quality of their script"

The reviewer mentions Thomas Aquinas, whose writing was notoriously illegible. She might have mentioned Napoleon as well, or quoted from Middlemarch

"At that time the opinion existed that it was beneath a gentleman to write legibly, or with a hand in the least suitable to a clerk. Fred wrote the lines demanded in a hand as gentlemanly as that of any viscount or bishop of the day: the vowels were all alike and the consonants only distinguishable as turning up or down, the strokes had a blotted solidity and the letters disdained to keep the line--in short, it was a manuscript of that venerable kind easy to interpret when you know beforehand what the writer means."

I'm late to this post but a couple of years ago I visited the National Archives in Washington DC. It was my favorite stop and I was surprised at the effect on me of seeing the Declaration of Independence. It occurred to me at that moment that if any such monumental document were created today, it would be electronic and everyone would have one. With all the good things about that, something powerful is lost at the same time.