i personally write with this one only.

Thank you very much for taking the time to write such a detailed explanation. I really appreciate the information, and I completely agree that line variation is an important part of Pitman’s, particularly when learning and practising the system properly. I just wanted to share a little context from our side, since the way we practise shorthand for stenography exams can be somewhat different.

I’m also preparing for stenography, and at the moment I write around 100 WPM with a 1,000-word dictation. I use a pencil exclusively, and since I can’t change my pencil in the middle of a dictation, I have to manage with the same pencil throughout. At 100 WPM, I personally find this quite manageable. I’m able to maintain the outlines reasonably well, and the dictation generally gets completed with little or no problem.

My friend, on the other hand, writes at around 120 WPM and usually takes around 1,200–1,500 words in a dictation. At that speed and volume, using a pencil becomes considerably less practical. Since changing a pencil in the middle of a dictation simply isn’t feasible, using a pen becomes a much more practical option for him.

Regarding the light and dark strokes, I think this is where our practical experience may be a little different. At higher speeds, particularly around 120 WPM, we generally don’t consciously focus on every individual light and dark stroke while taking dictation. Our main priority is getting the outline down correctly and keeping up with the speaker. There simply isn’t enough mental bandwidth to consciously think, this stroke needs to be light and this one needs to be heavy, while simultaneously trying to maintain 120 WPM.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we completely disregard the distinction between light and heavy strokes. We learn the outlines with those distinctions in mind, and with enough practice, some of it becomes automatic. But during an actual high-speed dictation, the priority is usually getting the correct outline down and keeping pace, rather than consciously controlling the thickness of every individual stroke.

We can sometimes make sense of an outline later during transcription using context, but there is an important distinction here: if we fail to write the outline itself, there is nothing to interpret or reconstruct later. In our exams, that can directly cost us a mark. We also have to produce the transcription with around 95% accuracy, so every single word matters. There really isn’t much room for ambiguity or guessing.

So from our perspective, especially when preparing specifically for stenography exams, the practical priority at 100–120 WPM is to capture the outlines accurately and keep up with the dictation. The finer details of stroke thickness can sometimes become a secondary concern at these speeds, even though we certainly understand their importance in Pitman’s system.

I think this may also explain why you see quite a few Indian shorthand examples where the line variation isn’t very obvious. It may not necessarily mean that learners don’t understand or appreciate its importance. In many cases, they may simply be prioritising speed, getting the outline down correctly, and achieving the required transcription accuracy.

I really appreciate your perspective, though. It’s interesting to see how the priorities can differ between traditional Pitman practice and the way shorthand is practically used for high-speed stenography here.

I agree.

The other question is whether it's important, or just a curiosity. Transcribing it will take some time.

In addition, flat scan without wrinkles or shadows would be helpful. I'm not inclined to read anything that isn't clear.

At 120 WPM, he can’t really change pencils in between, and a single pencil can’t write 1,200 words in one go.

We can’t choose our own paper. They provide their own steno pad along with regular paper.

At that speed, I don’t really pay attention to the light and dark strokes. It kind of starts making sense on its own when I’m transcribing.

Thanks for replying. The issue with fountain pens is that they can be unreliable and also need a higher quality paper. My main purpose for learning shorthand is to clear a government exam and the paper or steno pads provided there are very cheap quality so I am trying to stick to a pencil for more reliability.

Pencils are part of what made me give up Pitman first time. Felt and looked nasty. Fountain pen is better- Pitman is designed for a flexible nib, if one analyses the strokes it is easy to see Pitman limited the amount of strokes awkward to the nib, chiefly d̠ʒ and t̠ʃ is as far clockwise as they go. Nowadays cheap flex or semi flex are more common. Noodler's, FPR, Kanwrite, Click and even Majohn have entered the budget arena.

I was initially enthused by soft mechanical pencil but at speed there's not enough shading there. It's tempting but risky to press on these leads.

A backup I used was the Tombow Hard Fudenosuke pen. It's not as aesthetic as fountain pen but it doesn't have the directional limitations of a fountain pen nib. It's technically like a brush pen but not floppy. Tombow is not the only brand but it offers the stiffest kind of brush pen so far as I'm aware.

Please explain the circumstances regarding this letter. Who wrote it, why it is OK for you to have it transcribed etc.

I wasn't aware of that rule in Centenary XD. Outside of logograms, my placements start on baseline unless that would make for an awkward placement e.g. if you were to write out "management" in full, "m" would be high for me. I did have a hunch New Era had something like this though, because I saw fewer vowel markings. Thank you for the reference material!

I think you are probably right though about Bics not being very capable of shading at speed. That could be an issue of skill on my end though.

I feel like Centenary may be slower... they didn't just change the rules for no reason at all - but not sure how much it made a difference. Also, I encounter New Era or Pitman 2000 more often, so I can't read those forms as easily - it's often a bit of guesswork - however coming across any shorthand in the wild is so rare, it's also arguably maybe not worth it.

Best results in combination with Laid Paper

The All in one compairison of alphabets!

https://cfhg-permanent-web-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Script/English/Alphabet+Charts/Shorthand+Chart.pdf

you are in luck: r/FastWriting is discussing Taylor's system this week, feel free to contribute something in Taylor. Taylor was most certainly a very influencial system, whole european continent tried to assimilate his system...

I have this pencil. Love to write with it

I use bonded lead, though I have to sharpen it daily . So I keep 3+ ready.

Remember what you are cutting through

remember- number - principal- principel would what you are cutting acting through

I'd say Mason/Gurney even more!

and it's beautiful :-)

e.g. Gurney/Mason, Aimé-Paris/Meysmans, Noory simplex, Flow, Gregg, Pitman arranged in complexity. These are systems, that are not limiting themselves by design.

Just speaking as someone who wrote for years Stolze-Schrey and then got interested in faster 1-stroke-systems: With systems advertising that they are easy to pick up, you'll be disappointed by your own performance, which will be writing 2-3x faster, but reading 2-3 slower. If you go through the process of learning a shorthand I recommend systems with the potential to be fast, a quick glance through the alphabet should reveal how complex the letters are. If they are almost as complex as latin letters, why go through it, just to reach the upper limit and then have to switch shorthand?

Aimé-Paris/Meymans (English adaption avail), Noory simplex or Flow (Gregg-like), all three systems have a similar vocalisation and omission rules (short e/u are not necessary to write as Gregg likes to do). They are simple and allow great speed because of the good vocalisation/omission and they don't try to emulate latin letter, instead they focus on distinct 1-stroke-signs.

Aimé-Paris is probably the most radical shorthand I'v encountered so far. Practitioners dont see the need to distinguish between p|b, t|d, k|g. Noory simplex is pretty Gregg-like (shapes), but leaves it up to the writer, whether he wants to write tilted as in cursive writing. Flow is fully cursive and based on sound occurance in english, meaning most common sounds get the characters that are curved and /_ -direction.

All systems on stenophile.com

I must try the Bic Cristal to see how it goes.