TERMS TO PONDER

1. DOCUMENT refers to any material which contains marks, symbols, or signs that is either visible,
partially visible or invisible which furnish information or ultimately convey meaning to another
person.
2. QUESTIONED DOCUMENT refers to any material which some issue has been raised or which is
under scrutiny. A document is questioned because its origin, contents, or the circumstances and
story regarding its production arouse suspicion as to its genuineness or may adversely scrutinized
simply because it displeases someone.
3. PUBLIC DOCUMENT is any instrument notarized by a notary public or competent public official
with solemnities required by law.
4. OFFICIAL DOCUMENT is any instrument issued by the government or its agents or its officers
having the authority to do so and the offices, which in accordance with their creation, they are
authorized to issue and be issued in the performance of their duties.
5. PRIVATE DOCUMENT refers to every deed or instrument executed by a private person without
the intervention of a notary public or of any person legally authorized, by which documents some
disposition or agreement is proved, evidenced or set forth.
6. COMMERCIAL DOCUMENT is any instrument executed in accordance with the Code of
Commerce or any Mercantile Law, containing disposition of commercial rights or obligation.
7. HOLOGRAPHIC DOCUMENT is a document wherein the writing of an entire written document is
all questioned. A document that is completely written, prepared, and signed by the person himself
without the assistance of any person even a lawyer.
8. MICROSCOPE is the instrument which makes it possible to see physical evidence directly that
otherwise might be impossible. It serves to discover and show the physical fact by direct view of
the thing itself.
9. STEREOSCOPIC MICROSCOPE is type of microscope that provides a three-dimensional
enlargement which is important when searching for identifying characteristics in typewriting
samples, crossed strokes, erasures, alterations, and other problems that require magnification.
10. COMPARISON MICROSCOPE is a type of microscope that allows side-by-side simultaneous
comparisons of questioned and known samples under study. It brings two separated images into
the same field of view in the eyepiece so that the magnified images apparently lie side by side.
11. INFRA-RED IMAGE CONVERSION MICROSCOPE provides instant comparison of inks and their
ability to absorb or reflect infrared light and is a valuable tool for the detection of alterations.
12. HANDWRITING PROTRACTOR is made on glass so that the graduations can be brought into
actual contact with the line measured a photographed with it, if this is desirable. It is a special
ruled protractor designed for the easy and accurate measuring of the slant of writing.
13. TYPEWRITING PROTRACTOR is designed to show the exact abnormal slant of certain letters in
typewriting.
14. UNIFORMED RULED SQUARES ON GLASS, LETTERED AND NUMBERED is a glass with uniform
squares that can be placed over an alleged forgery and a model from which it was traced or over
two alleged tracings from the same original, to show suspicious identities that may exist, or in the
small size may be used to compare two enlarged typewritten letters.
15. TYPEWRITING TEST PLATE ON GLASS FOR ALIGNMENT AND LINE SPACING TEST consists of
a glass carrying accurately graduated fine line squares ten to the inch, the spacing of ordinary
typewriting. This glass can be placed over the typewriting to disclose and illustrate abnormal
horizontal or vertical alignment, which is another of the significant individual peculiarities of
typewriting.
16. ANGLE MEASURE is an instrument devised for the purpose of measuring angles in handwriting
and typewriting. The width of the angle is indicated at the point and the steps are in degrees or
half degrees and the angles indicated range from 60 to 10.
17. TYPEWRITER is a machine that can reproduce printed characters on paper. It has a keyboard
containing the letters of the alphabet, numbers, common punctuation marks, and various controls.
18. COMPUTER is an apparatus built to perform routine calculations with speed, reliability, and
ease.
19. CHEQUE-WRITING MACHINE is a device which is intended to prevent either erasure or
alteration of entries on cheque. This machine maybe regarded as a very simple form of typewriter,
which drives ink-covered typefaces into the very paper of the cheque.
20. PALEOGRAPHY is the study of early writings. The study embraces ancient and medieval
scripts, primarily in Greek and Latin and the languages that derived from them.
21. GRAFFITI refers to handwriting or images on the walls or surfaces of a public area, such as
buildings, parks, and toilets, they are usually political or sexual in content.
22. HANDWRITITNG is the result of a very complicated series of acts being as a whole, a
combination of certain forms of visible, mental and muscular habits acquired by long painstaking
efforts.
23. EXTENSOR is a group of muscles that push the pen to form the upward strokes.
24. FLEXOR is a group of muscles that push the pen to form the downward strokes.
25. MOTOR COORDINATION is the special way in which the various muscles used in writing work
together to produced written forms.
26. CHARACTERISTICS refer to the properties or marks of handwritings. These are the identifying
details of handwriting.
27. CLASS CHARACTERISTICS are properties of handwriting that are common to a number of
writers and may result from such influences as the writing system studied, family associations,
trade training, or foreign education as well as careless and haste in execution.
28. INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS are those properties or marks of handwritings which are
highly personal or peculiar and unlikely to occur in combination in other instances.
29. FORM is probably the most basic of individual characteristics. It is the pictorial representation
of a letter or writing movement.
30. SYSTEM refers to the shape, form, design of the individual letter.
31. ARC refers to a curved formed inside the top curve of loop, as in small letters “h”, “m”, “n”.
32. ARCH refers to any arcade form in the body of a letter found in small letters which contain
arches.
33. BEARD is the rudimentary initial up strokes of a letter.
34. BLUNT is the beginning and ending strokes of letters both small and capital in which the pen
touches the paper without hesitation.
35. BOWL is a fully rounded ova or circular form on a letter complete into an O.
36. BUCKLE KNOT refers to the horizontal end loop stroke that is often used to complete a letter.
37. HUMP refers to the rounded outside of the top of the bend stroke or curve in small letters.
38. SHOULDER refers to the outside portion of the top curve of small letters.
39. SPUR refers to a short initial or terminal stroke.
40. STAFF refers to any major long downward stroke of a small letter.
41. STEM OR TRUNK is the upright long downward strokes normally seen in capital letters.
42. RHYTHM is the harmonious recurrence of stress or impulse or motion.
43. ALIGNMENT is the relation of parts or the whole line of questioned writing or line of individual
letters in words to the baseline.
44. HEIGHT RATIO refers to the comparison or correlation of the height of one letter segment to
another letter, usually within the same word or signature.
45. MOVEMENT is the most important element of handwriting. It embodies the factor related to
the motion of the writing instrument, skill, speed, freedom, hesitation, emphasis, and rhythm.
46. ARCADE Movement is the manner in which the pen moves in order to form a letter. This
movement is form if the pen moves overhand, or clockwise, producing rounded letter formations.
47. FINGER MOVEMENT is that method of writing in which the letters are made almost entirely by
the action of the thumb and the first and second finger, the actual motion extending to the second
and slightly to the third joints.
48. HAND MOVEMENT is that produced in most part by the action of the hand as a whole with the
wrist as a center of action, but which some action of the fingers.
49. FOREARM OR MUSCULAR MOVEMENT is a writing that comes mainly from the shoulder, but is
the movement of the hand and arm with the arm supported by the desk on the cushion.
50. HIATUS is regarded as special form of pen lift. It is a gap between strokes.
51. SPEED is a property of handwriting that is correlated with naturalness of handwriting that is
frequently shown by slurring of letter forms.
52. HESITATION is the irregular thickening of the ink line when the writing slows down or stops
while the writer takes stuck of the position.
53. EMBELLISHMENT these are most often located at the beginning of a letter, but may be
throughout the written material. They usually take the form of an added movement that decorates
the writing, such as swirls, added loops, concentric circles, etc.
54. PEN PRESSURE refers to the proportion of the strokes to each other in width as affected by
shading. It is one of the most personal of somewhat hidden characteristics in writing.
55. PEN EMPHASIS is the act of intermittently forcing the pen against the paper surface with
increase pressure.
56. RETRACING is the process wherein the pen re-inks a written portion of the line, usually in the
opposite direction, such as a downward movement followed by an upward movement over the
existing line.
57. SHADING refers to the widening of the ink strokes due to the added pressure or the more
obvious increase in the width of the strokes.
58. SLANT or INCLINATION refers to the slope of the handwriting in relation to the base line. It is
fairly a stable characteristics and the average condition of this property varies very slightly in
writings done naturally.
59. PEN POSITION OR PEN HOLD is the relationship of pen point and the paper. This can be
determined from its exact location of the shading.
60. RETOUCHING OR PATCHING is a partial overwriting of a signature. It should be treated with
extreme suspicion for being forged.
61. CURSIVE OR CONVENTIONAL is one of the styles of writing wherein most part are joined
together.
62. SCRIPT is a disconnected style of writing or there is broken junction wherein characters are
separated.
63. BLOCK STYLE is a printed writing or capitalized.
64. TREMORS are rhythmic movement of part of the body caused by involuntary rhythmic muscle
contractions.
65. NATURAL WRITING refers to any specimen of writing executed normally without any attempt
to control or alter its identifying habits and its usual quality or execution.
66. DISGUISED HANDWRITING is one in which the writer has made a deliberate attempt to hide,
remove or modify all or some of his normal writing habits.
67. INDENTED WRITING refers to the partially visible depressions appearing on a sheet of paper
underneath the one on which the visible writing appears.
68. GUIDED-HANDWRITING/ASSISTED HANDWRITING is a handwriting that is actually produced
by the cooperation of two hands and two minds.
69. MUSCULAR CONTROL OR MOTOR CONTROL is characterized by free smooth, well regulated
movement produced without tension or impulsive variation.
70. LOOSE WRITING is characterized by too much freedom of movement and lack of regulation.
71. SIGNATURE refers to one’s name written by him on a document as a sign of acknowledgment.
It refers to any design or pattern written by a person in a document as a representation of
acknowledgment.
72. FORMAL SIGNATURE is a complete and correct signature for important document.
73. INFORMAL SIGNATURE is a cursory signature for routine documents and personal
correspondence.
74. CARELESS SIGNATURE is a scribble for the mail carrier, delivery boy, and perchance the
autograph collector.
75. EVIDENTIAL SIGNATURE is a signature, signed at a particular time and place, under particular
conditions, while the signer was at a particular age, in a particular physical and mental condition,
using particular implements, and which a particular reason and purpose for recording his name.
76. FORGERY refers to the fraudulently altering a written document or seal with the intent of
injuring the interests of another person or of fraudulently obtaining governmental revenue.
77. SIMPLE OR SPURIOUS FORGERY is defined as the fraudulent writing of the signature of another
in the natural or disguised writing of the forger.
78. SIMULATED FORGERY is the copying or imitation of a genuine writing. It is the most perfect
forgery as it imitates not only the form but also the manner of writing.
79. TRACED FORGERY is the result of an attempt to transfer to a fraudulent document an exact
facsimile of a genuine writing by some tracing process.
80. CUT AND PASTE FORGERY is created when the authentic signatures are misused by means of
photocopiers or computer scanners.
81. ERASURE is the act of changing the meaning of the document by means of removing certain
parts.
82. ALTERATION is the act of changing the meaning of the document by means adding certain
characters.
83. OBLITERATION is the act of changing the meaning of the document by means of spilling ink on
a document to hide some parts the forger does not want to be seen.
84. ANACHRONISM means that the forger has trouble matching the paper, ink or writing materials
to the exact date it was supposed to have been written. In other words, something is wrong in the
time and place.
85. STANDARD is defined as the general term referring to all authenticated writings of the suspect.
86. EXEMPLARS refer specifically to a specimen of standard writing offered in evidence or obtained
on request for comparison with the questioned writing.
87. COLLECTED STANDARD (NON-REQUEST STANDARD) is an exemplar that has been obtained
from official records, personal letter, or any other document that is known to have been written by
the suspect, when the suspect refuses to write an exemplar, when the suspect is not available, or
when the investigation is conducted without the knowledge of the suspect.
88. REQUEST OR DICTATED STANDARDS are those in which the subject is asked to write specific
material, usually through dictation.
89. POST LITEM MOTAM STANDARDS are writings produced by the subject after evidential writings
have come into dispute and solely for the purpose of establishing his contentions.
90. GRAPHOLOGY is the study and analysis of handwriting to assess or interpret the writer’s traits
or personality.
91. CALLIGRAPHY is the art of fine handwriting or the art of beautiful handwriting.
92. ASCENDER refers to the portion of the letter that rises above the waistline.
93. ASCENDER LINE refers to the guideline showing the height of an ascending letter.
94. BASELINE refers to the writing line that the body of a letter sits upon.
95. BRANCHING STROKE refers to the stroke which connects an arch to the down stroke of a
letter.
96. CAP LINE refers to the guideline showing the height of a capital letter.
97. COUNTER refers to the white space inside a letter.
98. CROSS BAR refers to the horizontal stroke forming part of a letter such as “t” or “H”.
99. DESCENDER refers to the portion of a letter that falls below the baseline.
100. DOWNSTROKE is a stroke directed downward towards the baseline or descender line.
101. FLOURISH is a non-structural embellishment added to a letter.
102. HAIRLINE refers to a very thin line.
103. MAJUSCULE refers to a capital letter or uppercase letter.
104. MINISCULE refers to a lowercase letter.
105. NIB refers to the pen point
106. SERIF refers to a small stroke which begins or ends a letter or a part of a letter.
107. WAISTLINE refers to the guideline showing the correct position for the upper boundary of the
x-height.
108. X-HEIGHT refers to the height of a letter or the portion of a letter that sits between the
baseline and the waistline.
109. HORIZONTAL DEFECT is an alignment defect of typewriting that occurs when a character
leans to the right or left of its proper position.
110. OFF-ITS-FEET DEFECT is an alignment defect in typewriting wherein a character prints with
an uneven distribution of ink lighter to the right or left.
111. REBOUND DEFECT is an alignment defect in typewriting that occurs when a character prints a
double impression of lighter to the right or left.
112. TWISTED DEFECT is an alignment defect in which a character leans to the right or left of its
proper position.
113. VERTICAL DEFECT is an alignment defect in typewriting wherein a character is printed above
or below its proper position. A character soldered too high or too low on the type bar.
114. PLATEN is a part of a typewriter that serves as the backing of the paper and which absorbs
the blow from the typeface.
115. EXAMINATION is the act of making a close and critical study of any material; and with
questioned documents is the process necessary to discover the facts about them.
116. COMPARISON is the act of setting two or more items side by side to weigh their identifying
qualities.
117. COLLATION means critical comparison or side by side examination.
118. CONCLUSION is a scientific conclusive result from relating observed facts by logical, common
sense reasoning in accordance with established rules or laws.
119. MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION is any study or examination which is made with the microscope
in order to discover minute physical details.
120. OBLIQUE OR SIDE LIGHT EXAMINATION is an examination with the illumination so controlled
that it grazes or strike the surface of the document from one side at a very low angle.
121. TRANSMITTED LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY is also useful in the examination of watermarks and
also furnishes a method of determining the identity, or the difference, in papers by showing
arrangement of the fibers and the markings of the wire gauge and dandy roll.
122. MORPHING is a practice that involves using computers to digitally alter pictures.
123. COUNTERFEITING is the crime of making, circulating or altering false coins and bank notes,
with intent to defraud others into accepting it as the genuine item.
124. ENGRAVING is type of printing paper money is a process by which the lines to be printed are
cut into pieces of metal by hand or with a machine. Ink is rubbed over the plate to fill the cuts in
the metal and the extra ink wiped off the top.
125. LETTERPRESS PRINTING is the process of printing paper money, the letters are made on
raised pieces of metal, which are covered with ink and then impressed upon the paper in the same
form as a rubber stamp or cliché.
126. OFFSET PRINTING is the process or method of printing paper that is the most common
modern method used by counterfeiters to make false/fake paper bills.
127. EXPERT WITNESS is a person skilled in some art, trade, or science to the extent that he
possesses information not within the common knowledge of man.
128. NON-EXPERT WITNESS is an ordinary witness who may express an opinion on matters of
common observation.
129. CACOGRAPHY is defined as bad writing or bad spelling.
130. ORTHOGRAPHY is defined as correct spelling.
131. MAGNIFIYING LENS/HAND LENS is a convenient instrument which aids in examination of
almost as it enlarges the size of letter or character.
132. SHADOWGRAPH is a machine which enlarges minute details as much as twenty times. This is
use to facilitate examination of handwriting and typewriting.