Pen Lift and Hiatus
Definition
Pen lift is a deliberate stop and re-start within or between letters; hiatus is a gap left in a stroke that should be continuous, often a fatigue or forgery sign.
- Pen lift
- Deliberate stop and re-start of the pen within or between letters
- Hiatus
- Unintended gap in a stroke that should run continuously
- Common cause
- Writer fatigue or slow, tracing-style forgery
- Field
- Questioned document examination, handwriting analysis
Common questions
How does an examiner tell a pen lift from a hiatus under magnification?+
A pen lift usually shows two clean stroke ends, sometimes with a slight overlap or blob where the pen touched down again. A hiatus shows a thin, ragged gap where ink simply failed to deposit, consistent with the pen never actually leaving the surface.
Why does a hiatus point toward forgery rather than natural writing?+
Genuine writing is normally fluent, so unexplained gaps in strokes that a natural writer would produce in one continuous motion suggest hesitation, tracing, or copying from a model signature rather than free execution.
Can natural writers also produce hiatuses?+
Yes. Fast writing, a dry pen, or an awkward writing surface can all cause a genuine hiatus, which is why examiners weigh it alongside other line-quality features rather than treating it as proof of forgery on its own.
Related terms
- ASTM E2290
- ASTM International standard guide for examination of handwritten items; lists the 21 discriminating elements that the examiner reports on.
- Baseline
- The imaginary line on which letters rest; can be straight, ascending, descending, convex, concave or undulating.
- Class Characteristic
- A feature shared by an entire group of objects (every shoe of one model has the same sole tread; every tire of...
- Exemplar (Standard)
- Authentic specimen writing of the suspect used for comparison. Two classes: request (taken under examiner control) and collected (pre-existing genuine writings).
- Handwriting
- A neuromuscular act in which graphic forms are produced on a surface; the product of motor memory built up through years of...
- Individual Characteristic
- A characteristic unique to a specific typewriter unit arising from manufacturing variation or service wear; used to identify or eliminate a specific...
- 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...
- Ratio
- Proportional relationship between the heights of small letters, capitals and ascenders/descenders.
- Retrace
- Re-tracing of a stroke back over its original path, common in letters like d, t and lower-loop closures.
- Slant
- Angle of letters relative to the baseline (right-slant, vertical, left-slant). A habit-driven class plus individual feature.