Handwriting pressure refers to the amount of force (how hard or soft you press the pen on the paper) you exert while writing.  When evaluating a handwriting sample, it is best if a ballpoint pen is used.  To see how pressure is measured, try this exercise:  Using a ballpoint pen and very light pressure write: "I like graphology and I will use it the rest of my life."  Next, write the same sentence with a heavy pressure, pressing down hard with your pen.  After you have written the two samples, turn the paper over and feel the writing from the other side of the page.  One area should feel much bumpier.  Next look at your writing sample.  The two samples should have a very different look.  Pressure reveals the amount of mental energy the writer is currently using, the strength and intensity of the writer's appetites and desires, as well as the degree to which he can respond to them.  Pressure can also indicate which specific words and/or phrases toward which the writer either lacks intensity or feels an increase of intensity.  We do not always write with the same amount of pressure, but most people tend to write with a medium amount of pressure most of the time. If you are not writing with medium pressure, your writing pressure will exhibit one of the following traits: heavy, too heavy, light, too light, uneven.  Here's a brief summary of what each of these traits tends to indicate:
Heavy: most likely the writer is feeling resolute, assertive, more aggressive than passive, active, energetic, vital, alert, forceful and perhaps pugnacious.  These writers tend to be self-assertive, determined and resolute.  They can also tend to impose their will on others.  Heavy pressure is caused by contracted muscles, which generally happens when one is tense, angry, anxious, determined or forceful.
Too Heavy Pressure: overly heavy pressure tends to mean profound frustration.  The overly heavy pressure writer will tend to tear through the paper or makes cross-outs on mistakes that rip through the page.  This person has the potential for violence.
Light Pressure: tends to indicate a person who is passive, lacking in intensity, felling gentle or calm, perhaps more spiritual than aggressive, a follower rather than a leader.  Light pressure can at times be the result of a physical illness.
Pressure that is too Light: most likely the writer tends to be overly timid, submissive and lacking in willpower, vitality or intensity.
Now make a second handwriting sample.  Write the same sentence "I like graphology and I will use it the rest of my life."  but this time try bearing down heavily, then lighten up, then bear down again and lighten up.  Do this several times.
How did you feel as you changed the pressure of the pen on the paper?
Uneven Pressure:  writers with uneven pressure tend to be worriers.  The writing tends to exhibit jerks and starts.  The more nervous you are, the more uneven your writing pressure will be.  The happier, calmer, healthier and more centered you are, the smoother your writing will be.
Here's a simple writing exercise you can do the next time you feel angry, agitated or out of sorts.  Try writing with a light pressure and make very round figure eights, linking them together in a slow motion, much like a fish swimming through water.  Within approximately thirty to sixty seconds, you will slow down your heart rate.   Source: Handwriting Analysis Putting it to Work for You by Andrea McNichol with Jeffrey A. Nelson.
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