Hello,
I am a member of a Facebook shorthand group dominated by Indian and Pakistani Pitman practitioners. They often post Pitman texts and their longhand equivalent in two columns side by side on the same page, and I am always struck by how condensed Pitman looks, taking up less than half of the space needed for the longhand transcription.
I’d be interested in other people’s experience on this. It generally looks like Gregg uses a lot of space, more so than English longhand (at least based on the Gregg material I’ve come across so far). Is this an artistic decision/tradition? do some users write much smaller than this? Do Gregg shapes curve in such a way that it is difficult to maintain legibility at smaller sizes whereas Pitman shapes are more readily distinguishable even when written small? Doesn’t this have an impact on speed (I would assume the more space you take, the slower you become and vice-versa ?).
Thanks for your comments!