Used mostly in the 19th century, Cross-writing is a technique for saving paper. After a page of writing or after both sides of a page were filled in, the writer would then turn the page 90 degrees and continued writing, adding a second layer of text, perpendicular to the first. Apparantly it is surprisingly quite easy to read, as a reader's mind naturally tunes out the irrelevant lines. Via BMD Love Blog (Bruce Mau Design).
10 comments:
i first read about cross writing in the 'little house on the prairie' books and couldn't imagine how it would be readable...from the photo you posted it still looks challenging...i guess it's amazing what the human eye can see and block out.
alison
stuff and nonsense
the archive i used to work in had tons of these. many written during the civil war in the states. fascinating.
alison, i totally missed when i read those books...
erin, that is fascinating.
wow..this is amazing..I'll try it myself..i can see my daughter getting totally fascinated by this! thanks for sharing..have a lovely day..do visit my blog when you have a moment! xx meenal
I really love this idea!
I love learning new things!!! Now I wanna go scour stacks of journals at flea markets!!!
WOW! That's amazing. I didn't know that at all! I've read all of the Little House books several times and I don't remember reading about that. Makes me want to go back and read them again to read about cross-writing. :)
Regina
Live Delightfully
I like writing longhand with a fountain pen and often use cross writing myself. It's easy to read, easier for cursive than printing in fact. I was always told it evolved because letters were costed by weight for the post so - please note for earth day - the incentives were right. All good things for a Happy Easter everyone.
I've seen this before, in the letters that soldiers wrote home in the civil war. This is a beautiful picture of it!
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