Editing Block letters (section)

{{Short description|Style of writing Latin script}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Globalize|date=May 2017}}
[[File:War Damage Commission claim form c1 p2 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Detail of a form filled in with handwritten [[small caps]]]]
'''Block letters''' (known as '''printscript''', '''manuscript''', '''print writing, printing''' or '''ball and stick''' in academics) are a [[sans-serif]] (or "gothic") style of writing [[Latin script]] in which the letters are individual [[glyph]]s, with no joining.

[[Elementary education]] in English-speaking countries typically introduces children to the literacy of handwriting using a method of block letters (commonly referred to as manuscript by educators), which may later advance to [[cursive]] (joined) penmanship. The policy of teaching cursive in American elementary schools has varied over time, from strict endorsement such as the [[Palmer Method|Palmer method]] in the early 20th century, to removal by [[Common Core]] in 2010, to being reinstated.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/13/education/cursive-writing.html|website=New York Times|title=Cursive Seemed to Go the Way of Quills and Parchment. Now It's Coming Back.|date=13 April 2019 |accessdate=August 6, 2022|last1=Rueb |first1=Emily S. }}</ref>

On official forms, one is often asked to "please print". This is because cursive handwriting is harder to read, and the glyphs are joined so they do not fit neatly into separate boxes.

Block letters may also be used as to refer to '''block capitals''', which means writing in [[all caps|all capital letters]] or in [[Small caps|large and small capital letters]], imitating the style of typeset capital letters.<ref name=:1/> However, in at least one court case involving [[patent]]s, the term "block letters" was found to include both [[letter case|upper and lower case]].<ref name=:1>''[http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/foia/ttab/2dissues/1998/98191.pdf Fossil Inc v The Fossil Group] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327094537/http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/foia/ttab/2dissues/1998/98191.pdf |date=2014-03-27 }}''</ref>

Handwritten block letters generally can be digitalised more accurately by [[optical character recognition]] than handwritten cursive scripts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Handwriting OCR: Is cursive OCR compatible? {{!}} Adobe Acrobat |url=https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/hub/can-ocr-recognize-handwriting |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=www.adobe.com}}</ref> Block letters are naturally used in [[Crossword|crossword puzzles]].