Stroke Order
Definition
The canonical sequence of strokes within a CJK character, specified by national pedagogical standards (GB/T 15834 in China, Joyo Kanji conventions in Japan); deviations from standard stroke order are individualising features and encode educational-system origin as a class characteristic.
- Applies to
- CJK character handwriting
- China standard
- GB/T 15834
- Japan convention
- Joyo Kanji stroke order
- Forensic role
- Class characteristic of educational origin
Common questions
Why does deviation from standard stroke order matter to an examiner?+
A writer who consistently deviates from the taught sequence for a character reveals something about which educational system or region trained them, and the specific pattern of deviation can also function as an individualising habit in comparison work.
Is stroke order a class or individual characteristic?+
It is primarily a class characteristic, since it tracks the standard a writer was taught rather than something unique to them, but a writer's particular pattern of departures from that standard can carry individualising weight when combined with other features.
Related terms
- Abjad
- A script system representing only consonants, with vowels supplied by context; Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu are abjads. Most individualising forensic features lie...
- Abugida (Alphasyllabary)
- A script system in which consonant characters carry inherent vowels modified by diacritical marks; Devanagari, Bengali, Tamil, and Thai are abugidas.
- Alphabet
- A script system in which individual characters represent individual phonemes; Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Korean Hangul are alphabets.
- Class Characteristics
- Features deliberately or systematically imparted to a group of items by design or manufacture, such as the calibre of a bullet, the...
- Cross-Script Disguise
- An attempt by a writer to imitate a script system in which they are not fluent, typically to mislead investigators about linguistic...
- Logograph
- A script system representing morphemes or syllables with complex characters; Chinese Hanzi and Japanese Kanji are logographic, with character stroke order as...
- Nuqat
- The diacritical dots in Arabic script that distinguish letter pairs (b/t/th, n/y, etc.); in fluent adult writing, multi-dot groups are often merged...
- OSAC (NIST)
- Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science under the US National Institute of Standards and Technology; the successor body to SWGDOC,...
- Shirorekha
- The horizontal headline stroke at the top of most Devanagari consonant characters, joining adjacent letters; its individual variation in height, pressure, continuity,...