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Handwriting Success

Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series

Recommended Ages
Start the program at any grade level. One consumable workbook provides a year's worth of instruction.

K-6 grades and beyond.

The Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series by Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay
is a comprehensive handwriting program in seven workbooks for K - 6th grade and beyond. Students progress to cursive italic by joining the basic italic letters they’ve learned — there’s no need to relearn the alphabet for cursive mode as with looped-cursive methods. This makes Getty-Dubay® Italic easy to teach, fun to learn, and a homeschool favorite for over 45 years. Each of the seven workbooks in the series has been designed to utilize the child's natural curiosity and thirst for learning. The unique "Look-Plan-Practice" approach to self-assessment enhances legibility while empowering your students, encouraging responsibility for their own progress. Start the program at any level. The complete program is less than $14.00 per year per student, and free online resources are available at handwritingsuccess.com. Spanish Editions are available for K-2.

Features
BookMastery-BasedOpen and GoScreen-Free

Parents and students who want to focus on legible, handsome writing.

Pros

Parents love how effective and quick the program is at providing their students with a legible and handsome handwriting style. They also like that the handwriting models are handwritten by the authors, and there are no distracting cartoon characters or extraneous images.

Cons

Parents sometimes want their students to learn a continuous looped cursive style, and don't realize until they open the workbooks that Italic handwriting has no "ball-and-stick" writing or loops and curlicues. Others have been disappointed that the books are not available as downloadable PDFs (although there are downloadable Teacher Companion PDFs available which provide lesson plans and supplemental worksheets as an option.)

Schools can receive 20 - 40% discount. Please contact info@handwritingsuccess.com to apply. We anticipate government funding options being available in early 2026.

The seven grade-level workbooks of the Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series are $13.75 each, with an optional Instruction Manual for $21.75. The entire Series is available for $95.00 — that's seven year's worth of instruction material for one student and teacher! Support materials such as desk strips, alphabet cards, Teacher Companions, digital fonts and more start at $3.25. Free DIY worksheets, videos, apps and other online resources are available at handwritingsuccess.com.

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Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series
$13.75 USD

Skills

What kids will learn
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ELA
ELA
Handwriting
Handwriting
Writing
Writing

Our mission

Handwriting Success publishes the Getty-Dubay® Italic books, materials, apps for tablet and stylus, and downloadable computer fonts that bring legibility, beauty and ease to the everyday experience of writing by hand.

Our story

Getty-Dubay® Italic began in 1979 as the collaboration between two like-minded educators, Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay, both artists, calligraphers, and teachers.They recognized the need for an alternative to the then-traditional looped-cursive system for learning handwriting, they set about creating instruction books for children — all handwritten — that were soon widely adopted in the US and internationally. Getty and Dubay have offered 170 Rx for Handwriting Success seminars for over 4,500 medical professionals across the United States, and also have presented at the World Health Organization in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the International Patient Safety Conference in Florence, Italy. In addition, they have each taught handwriting and calligraphy as faculty in schools and colleges in the Pacific Northwest.

FAQ: Additional Details about Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series

Direct handwriting instruction works best a the beginning of the day, because it builds orthographic skill (linking visual, fine-motor, auditory and language). The student sees the book cover depicting a natural landscape, and opens the workbook to the new page for the day, showing details about the natural shapes of our letters and how to produce them with a writing tool. The pen (or pencil) may feel awkward at times, and then the fingers and posture adjust to make it better. There is focus and attention to detail. After reading the short instructions, letter tracing begins and is like bicycling with training wheel. Free copying comes next and the training wheels are off -- some letters might be wobbly, others well-formed. The student reads aloud (or silently) what has been handwritten, then looks over the writing that was done to assess what went well, and chooses one thing that can use improvement, then plans how to improve it and finishes by doing that planed practice.

The Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series for K-6 is a stand-alone handwriting program. The seven developmentally appropriate workbooks A-G provide instruction and handwriting practice in the form of tracing and copying. Book C also introduces cursive italic. Books D-G also review basic italic (print), then introduce and review cursive italic. For this reason, students may enter the program at any grade level and start with the book that matches their current language arts skill. Each consumable workbook is a full-year curriculum. We recommend no more than one page of the workbook per session, plus some other handwriting during the day. Younger students will need direct instruction from the parent in relatively short sessions, whereas older students can work more independently with parent guidance and reinforcement of self-assessment techniques.

The parent as teacher should be involved in providing direct instruction for the student. All necessary instructional information is contained on the workbook pages. Additional reference material is available to the parent in the optional Instruction Manual. Teacher involvement varies by age. Overall, the teacher should at a minimum plan on helping the student understand the lesson goals, then assist with the self-assessment prompts.

Highly scripted lessons.

Many stylistic options that make handwriting less rigid than with other methods.

Phonics compatible lessons, plus a highly legible handwriting style, with an easy transition from print to cursive modes when the student is ready.

The worksheets are in black-and-white with minimal visual disruption. The optional apps are low-stimulus.

The Workbooks are left-handed friendly.

Multiple runways to aligned language arts topics and other subjects.

Multiple runways to aligned language arts topics and other subjects.

Multiple runways to aligned language arts and other topics. The co-author Inga Dubay taught this method in a gifted school for five years.

Highly scripted lessons.

Many stylistic options that make handwriting less rigid than with other methods.

Phonics compatible lessons, plus a highly legible handwriting style, with an easy transition from print to cursive modes when the student is ready.

The natural oval and arch shapes of the letters are easier to manage than with continuous looped cursive styles. The student doesn't need to relearn the alphabet to write in the cursive mode, as with other programs allowing work on automaticity to continue uninterrupted. Letter joining is optional and can be done when the student is ready, or to reinforce spelling concepts.

Unused workbooks in good condition may be returned within 30 days.

Parents or students who prefer looped and curlicue handwriting styles.

Some parents and students may find a digital platform more enticing. For them we recommend the Handwriting Success App for tablet and stylus. The free Letter FUNdamentals Apps also provide letter tracing practice for younger students.

Getty-Dubay® Italic is 21st century classroom ready with digital tools and print-on-demand materials. The latest addition to these resources are the free Letter FUNdamentals Apps for mobile dives that provides letter formation practice for younger students. The DIY Worksheet Creator and the Getty-Dubay® Fonts allow parents to quickly make supplemental worksheets for additional practice, vocabulary, spelling and more. Printable optional lesson plans and aligned supplemental worksheets are available as Teacher Companions. Our Spanish Editions are an excellent resource for bilingual households.

Encourage students to use their handwriting throughout the day.

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Meet Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay

Barbara Getty, B.A., M.A.T., was an adjunct professor at Portland Community College where she taught calligraphy and handwriting from 1969 to 1999. She was an elementary school teacher for fourteen years and also taught at Portland State University and Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Inga Dubay, B.A., was an adjunct professor at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, Oregon where she taught calligraphy for 25 years, and was Books Arts Department Head for six years. She taught handwriting in public and private schools for thirteen years and has spent countless additional volunteer hours with children in public school classrooms.

Modulo's expert opinion

Our learning specialists give their honest evaluation
ManishaCEO and Founder of Modulo

Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting gives students a lifelong gift — legible, elegant handwriting taught with care.