Editing Shorthand (section)

=== Geometric and script-like systems ===
Shorthands that use simplified letterforms are sometimes termed ''stenographic'' shorthands, contrasting with alphabetic shorthands, below. Stenographic shorthands can be further differentiated by the target letter forms as geometric, script, and semi-script or elliptical.

''Geometric'' shorthands are based on circles, parts of circles, and straight lines placed strictly horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The first modern shorthand systems were geometric. Examples include [[Pitman shorthand]], [[Boyd's syllabic shorthand]], Samuel Taylor's Universal Stenography, the French Prévost-Delaunay, and the [[Duployan shorthand|Duployé]] system, adapted to write the [[Kamloops Wawa]] (used for [[Chinook Jargon]]) writing system.<ref>{{cite web |last=Anderson |first=Van |url=https://www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n3895.pdf |title=Proposal to include Duployan script and Shorthand Format Controls in UCS |publisher=ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 |date=2010-09-24 |access-date=2024-06-25}}</ref>

''Script'' shorthands are based on the motions of ordinary handwriting. The first system of this type was published under the title ''Cadmus Britanicus'' by Simon Bordley, in 1787. However, the first practical system was the German [[Gabelsberger shorthand]] of 1834. This class of system is now common in all more recent German shorthand systems, as well as in [[Austria]], [[Italy]], [[Scandinavia]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Russia]], other Eastern European countries, and elsewhere.

''Script-geometric'', or ''semi-script'', shorthands are based on the ellipse. Semi-script can be considered a compromise between the ''geometric'' systems and the ''script'' systems. The first such system was that of George Carl Märes in 1885. However, the most successful system of this type was [[Gregg shorthand]], introduced by [[John Robert Gregg]] in 1888. Gregg had studied not only the ''geometric'' English systems, but also the German Stolze stenography, a ''script'' shorthand. Other examples include [[Teeline Shorthand]] and [[Thomas Natural Shorthand]].

The semi-script philosophy gained popularity in Italy in the first half of the 20th century with three different systems created by Giovanni Vincenzo Cima, Erminio Meschini, and Stenital Mosciaro.