What Your Handwriting Says About Your Personality

Jan. 23 is National Handwriting Day - a great excuse to put away your smartphone and explore the lost art of penmanship.

What does your handwriting say about you?

Graphology, the science of analyzing handwriting for personality traits, has been around since the days of Aristotle. Today, it's used for a variety of purposes, from criminal investigations to understanding your health. Some employers even use handwriting analysis to screen potential employees for compatibility.

We talked to master graphologist Kathi McKnight about what the seemingly insignificant details in your writing say about your personality. "Just from analyzing your handwriting, experts can find over 5,000 personality traits," she says.

McKnight readily admits that the information she provides below is a basic overview, so it won't apply to everyone in every situation. Yet these factors can reveal aspects about yourself that you may not have considered before.

Start by writing out a sentence. We suggest: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Then, keep reading to see what your handwriting says about you.

This is an update of an article reported by Maggie Zhang.