To determine authorship of a particular signature or handwriting sample, a forensic document examiner will consider certain characteristics, including

1. Spacing of words and letters
2. Ratio of relative height, width, and size of letters
3. Pen lifts and separations
4. Connecting strokes
5. Beginning and ending strokes.
6. Unusual letter formation.
7. Slant.
8. Baseline characteristics
9. Flourishes and embellishments
10. The length, size, and location of diacritics (dotting of i's and crossing of t's).