Copperplate is the progenitor of many classic penmanship techniques that followed. With its roots in the Carolingian and Gothic styles of caligraphy that had dominated, copperplate script was designed to be efficient and practical. Scholars debate the finer distinctions between copperplate script and English roundhand, but it appears copperplate script came first and branched into two distinct styles: English roundhand and the more delicate Italian copperplate used primarily by well-bred women. Copperplate consisted of thin, slanted strokes and ovals with little ornamentation. English roundhand eventually became its own style of heavily ornamented script, but copperplate is occasionally used as an interchangeable term for English roundhand.
When John Hancock lent his bold signature to the Declaration of Independence, he signed it in the English roundhand style. Popular from the late 16th century until the beginning of the19th century, English roundhand features sloping letters and a combination of thick and thin pen strokes called shading. The ascenders, or upward strokes, of each letter typically end in a loop or swirl, especially on capital letters. While called English roundhand, this style of penmanship was used throughout Europe and the early United States, especially for matters of business and government.
Platt Rogers Spencer developed his intricate, delicate handwriting technique in 1850. Flowing and graceful, Spencerian script was the first truly American style of penmanship, and its inception began what historians call the "Golden Age of Penmanship," which lasted until about 1925. Letters in Spencerian script are round or oval in shape, and strokes are typically much thinner than those of English roundhand. While Spencerian script is not widely taught today, two of the world's most recognizable corporate logos -- those of Ford and Coca-Cola -- are composed in elegant Spencerian script.
The Palmer method had supplanted Spencerian script by the turn of the 20th century. Austin Norman Palmer formulated the Palmer method in the late 1870s, and his streamlined script became the standard for penmanship in both business and education for decades to follow. Palmer script eliminates the light shading that occurred in Spencerian script, and letters are narrower. Legibility, ease, endurance and rapidity were the four hallmarks of Palmer script and penmanship. Spencerian script was regarded as too fussy and feminine, so Palmer script was designed to present a more masculine handwriting style.