Graffiti

There are several ways of entering data into a personal digital assistant ( PDA ) such as the well-known Palm . One approach is to use a writing instrument called a stylus, which resembles a pen without ink, to write alphabetic and numeric characters on the screen. The PDA recognizes these characters as if they were keyboard entries. Graffiti is the trade name for the specialized set of characters that the Palm recognizes. The program that allows input using this set of characters is also called Graffiti. (In Italian, a graffito is a scribbling; the plural form is often used to describe the scribblings people do on walls, fences, subways, and so forth.)

The main difference between Graffiti and conventional handwriting is the fact that all the characters must consist of a single continuous stroke of the stylus. For some letters this makes little or no difference, for example, uppercase G, R,and I. For a few letters, Graffiti is significantly different than conventional handwriting. Examples are A, F, and T. It takes practice to get used to this modified set of characters, but most people can master it in a few hours.

The illustration is an example of the word GRAFFITI written in Graffiti.