What your signature says about you

We sign cheques, contracts, tax forms and all sorts of other important and not-so-important documents.

We also tend to sign letters, even if the body of text is printed. And the finest writers of love letters in history tended to end with the flourish of a flamboyant signature.

In other words, signatures are important. And in a world of type-written correspondence, your signature is the one piece of writing that is still up for interpretation. Handwriting experts say that recipients pick up on the messages your signature sends, if only subliminally.

According to graphologist Fiona Mackay, your signature "is how you want to be seen. Being the writing most often seen by the rest of the world, it's your public face."

So here are some signature facts, and some clues as to what yours might be giving away about you.

Our signatures are unique
We all develop flourishes that mark our signatures out, and our signatures serve to identify us. Signatures can be copied, but it's much harder to forge a signature than to forge normal handwriting, which is (or should be) written for clarity.

We learn to write, and then we develop a signature. But unlike learning to write, we don't follow rules when we are creating a signature. Some people practice their signatures for a long time in a bid to make them unique. Other signatures are just names written quickly without taking the pen from the page. Whatever they are, they are clues to our personalities.

Showy signatures
Men - especially young men - often develop flamboyant and showy signatures. That's fine, if you want to present a flamboyant, showy personality - if you're an artist or entertainer, say, or some other kind of public figure. But handwriting analysts say that if you sign off a sober, conservative business letter in this way, it will create confusion. Are you a serious proposition or not? And you don't want a potential customer to be confused about who you really are.

People in the public eye often develop large, showy signatures, because they want to appear larger than life. If you don't, you might want to tone the flourishes down.

Big signatures
You want to come across as confident, but not over-confident, and your signature can present you as both. A signature that is too big and bold, especially if it's much bigger than the rest of the text, could mark you out as arrogant.

In some situations you may want to come across as bold, of course, but remember to reduce the size of your scrawl for those occasions when appearing over confident would not be to your advantage.

And a large signature that is also too showy may backfire, by indicating feelings of inadequacy, say experts. You want to be noticed. You might even want to be seen as a bit of an extrovert. But try too hard and it looks a little forced, and not the real you.

Small signatures
If overly large signatures sometimes give the wrong impression, so do small and unobtrusive ones. As you might expect, tiny signatures, especially if smaller than the body of text, indicate a desire not to be noticed. Shy, introverted people often have very small signatures. If you want your signature to show a natural confidence and ease, go for the middle ground: bigger than the surrounding text, but not so big as to dominate the page.

Sober signatures Sober signatures - by which we mean those that don't differ too much from the rest of your writing in slant and style - can mean that you are a 'what you see is what you get' type of person. You're showing your true personality - with both its strengths and weaknesses - in all that you write. Sober signatures can seem a little boring, of course, but they're a safe bet and work for any kind of correspondence.

Readable signatures
Sober signatures are generally easily readable, while others are swirly scrawls that seem to bear no resemblance to the printed name. It's up to you how you'd like yours to come out, but experts believe that legibility implies modesty and a consideration for the reader. You're making an effort to write well so they don't have to make an effort to read what you've written, and that's as true of your signature as the rest of the text.

Illegible signatures
If you're writing for business, say, or composing the letter that will accompany a job application, sober and legible is probably the best way to go. But experts also say that writing that is hard to read - because it's been written quickly - can be indicative of a sharp mind or the need to get a torrent of thoughts down on paper quickly.

Such spontaneity is not good for a business letter, but it might be fine for a personal one. Your signature may be an illegible scrawl, but if it seems to confirm the impression of quick thinking that's not always a bad thing. A hurriedly written love letter may end with an illegible signature, for example, which may be interpreted as the writer struggling to tame his tumbling, out-of-control emotions.

The underline
Many signatures are underlined. If the underline is short and straight, it may suggest an unassuming manner and also, say experts, self-reliance. And of course, the opposite is also true. A more showy, swirly underline suggests attention-seeking.

Few of the traits associated with your signature are universally bad ones - there's nothing wrong with being showy, super confident, shy, unassuming or flamboyant, if that's what you want to convey. But your signature does say something about you, and your reader will pick up on it, if only subconsciously. In other words, use your signature wisely - it's one of the ways you show your public face to the world.