Significant role of pen pressure in differentiating between genuine and forged handwritings & signatures

Over the years, examination of questioned documents are mainly focussed on specific individual characteristics like slant, letter formation, connections, etc. not providing desirable weightage to pen pressure which is also an important individual characteristic. This study focuses on the examination of pen pressure to differentiate between a forged and a genuine signature/handwriting. As this is the least explored area in terms of research of role of pen pressure in determining the forgery which makes it challenging but full of scope. In this study, multiple signatures were recorded from different individuals with increasing paper sheets to check pressure points. The samples were then gathered by requesting individuals to attempt forgery on blank sheets with carbon paper and which were later analyzed thoroughly. The finding of this study is quite promising which concludes that when pen pressure is examined, a clear demarcation can be made between forged and genuine signatures, so that the examination can be achieved in less time with accuracy, whereas, its complicated and time-consuming subjected to the knowledge and understanding of the examiner (as it’s a subjective approach) to differentiate between a genuine and forged document based on handwriting characteristics. Physical characteristics in a signature can be duplicated but pressure points cannot be duplicated. Pen pressure examination also reduces the time and resources since it doesn’t employ broad terminologies that is there in physical characteristics examination. In terms of establishing the authenticity, pen pressure is more accurate than individual characteristics.