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Freehand Forgery

Definition

Forgery produced without any model of the genuine signature. Easy to detect because total morphology mismatches the genuine.

Related terms

Anonymous Writing
A document whose author is concealed by design, ranging from threat and ransom letters to poison-pen office mail. Authorship attribution combines handwriting...
Block-Letter Conversion
Switching from cursive to block capitals to suppress connecting-stroke habits. Spacing, proportion and i-dot habits often survive.
Disguised Writing
Writing in which the writer has deliberately altered their habitual features to prevent identification; commonly involves changed slant, block capitals, opposite hand,...
Hand Change
Writing with the non-dominant (usually left) hand. Produces awkward, angular, tremulous strokes with low fluency; the writer's habitual letter designs still surface...
Lifted (Transferred) Forgery
Genuine signature physically transferred from one document to another, classically by chemical lift, now by scanner-and-printer or photo-edit transplant onto a fabricated...
Line Quality
The overall fluency, rhythm and pressure variation of a stroke. Genuine writing has smooth, rhythmic, pressure-modulated lines; forgeries show tremor, blunt starts...
Signature
Psychologically expressive behaviours that go beyond what's needed to complete the offence: posing the body, ritual acts, taking trophies, leaving messages. Signature...
Simulated Forgery
Forgery drawn while looking at a genuine model. Shows slow execution, pen lifts, hesitation, tremor and patchwork retouching.
Slant Change
The commonest disguise: a right-handed writer with natural right slant deliberately writes with left or vertical slant. Holds for short stretches; idiosyncrasies...
Traced Forgery
Forgery produced by tracing over a genuine signature placed under thin paper or on a light box. Outline matches genuine too closely,...

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