Joe -

One of my high school buddies who was afflicted with the sinister curse had a habit of turning the page upside down and writing right to left upside down. This put the hand "off the ink" for at least a line at a time, although the last line could still be smudgeable when you started the next one.

Some of us "righties" found that imitating him and writing upside down (or mirror image right to left) actually produced "prettier" work than when we wrote normally, possibly just from the little extra concentration required - although I suspect that with practice it would all look the same.

A "throwback" in the publishing industry is well known in the case of Earle Buckingham who wrote what many still consider the first "thorough" textbooks on gear design, mostly in the '40s and '50s (IIRC). His original books were all "hand lettered" - drafting style - and to those who've spent "time on the board" they were absolutely GORGEOUS!. Later editions were typeset, but the old ones still evoke warm feelings (not all related to elderly bladder functions).

Judging by the number of books on the shelves at Barnes et. al., Calligraphy is still a fairly popular "craft art," although judging by "her" personal collection a lot more books on the subject are sold than get read. It is still a "marketable" skill, even though the market is somewhat limited. It's hard to view making much of a living "scripting" the graduates' names on diplomas two or three times a year, and not all schools bother with the tradition, although some people seem to have ambitions about getting the job.

John