Autopen machine created signatures

A help and advice guide to Autopen machine drawn signatures

Lets start with....What is an Autopen signature? This is a word that is very often wrongly used or attributed to items that are stamped or printed. I am not going to go into much detail here for now, as i am currently writing an article soley about Autopens, but here is some basic guidance, which is accurate and not stolen from someone elses website! which is more than i can say for some other articles on Autopens! If you do a search for my website on Google (just search for AUTOGRAFICA) you will find this article plus others, and a selection of Autopen signed items for sale as well.

Firstly, 'Autopen' is a trade name although it is used as a generic word for a signature created by a machine, much like "Hoover" is used to describe any vacuum cleaner. You may have read other articles about Autopen signatures, but let me tell you, most of them are wrong in one way or another, and if you take what they say as gospel, you will will only end up buying Autopen signatures as authentic, or mis describing them as printed or otherwise.

There are other manufacturers of similar machines, and not all work in exactly the same way, although they all have the same traits. There are also now more modern machines which are much more like your own home printer, in that they print the signature onto the item using inks rather than a pen, but that is a different subject and you only need to understand or study how your home printer works to be able to determine this type of signature. What we are discussing here are signatures created by the traditional Autopen machine only.

Some typicle myths about Autopen signatures are that they are  always exactly the same, but they are not! Most people who use an Autopen machine will have more than one 'matrix' (that is the part of the machine that determines the signature) and so they may have available to them more than one signature style. But it must also be remembered that each of those signature styles can be changed in size simply by making a couple of adjustments on the Autopen machine, thereby creating a slightly different signature in size.

Some will suggest or describe the Autopen signature as 'printed' and again this is incorrect as the machine uses a pen (or almost any other writing implement) to write the signature in a similar way to yourself. So it is  not printed as this is an entirely different process.

It is also said that the Autopen signature will  always have wobbles or appear shakey, this too is incorrect. On a badly set up or poorly maintained machine this may well be true, but on a well set up machine you will not see any wobbles or similar and the signature will look almost perfect. A good example fo this are the Autopen signatures  you will see on the Cards sent out by Buckingham Palace signed the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. These are probably the best Autopen signatures you will ever see, but still you will see them often being sold on ebay as 'authentic' so beware!

I have seen others suggest that you will not see the 'bridges and tunnels' but simply a solid line of colour, this again is completely wrong. The writing will have the effect of these bridges and tunnels exactly as your own hand writing does. Take a look at your own writing using a pen under a magnifying glass, and you will see what i mean by 'bridges and tunnels'. Your pen will create a 'road' which will have along it a series of 'bridges' and 'tunnels' as it draws your signature.

Another myth is that the Autopen signature does not leave any marks or indentations on the paper or photo, and once again this is incorrect. The Autopen machine uses a pen, pencil or similar to produce the signature, so for all intents and purposes an Autopen signature will look very similar in most ways to a real signature. If it is fitted with a ballpoint pen, then it will certainly leave an impression of some sort on the paper, just as you would when writing. The pressure of the pen in the machine onto the paper can be adjusted, so it will always depend again on how well the machine is set up.

Probably the most stupid myth of all, Autopen signatures have a yellowing around them! Complete nonsense, as this 'halo' effect can happen with certain types of ink used in felt tip markers, and so this can happen, and is sometimes seen on all kinds of signed photos and pages, and has nothing at all whatever to do with Autopen signatures, only the type of ink within the pen and the paper used to write on.

The Autopen always leaves a dot at the start and finish! yet another myth that is put forward by so many sites and articles. Most Autopen examples do show this, but  not all of them, so don't rely on this to confirm if a signature is an autopen or not, although it is generaly a good indication.

An Autopen signature never has any variation in line thickness. Wrong again, although this is something you should be looking hard for. The machine is normally fitted with a felt tip style pen, and because the machine cannot create the variable pressure and angle that you yourself will produce when writing, the Autopen signature will appear to have been written using the same pressure and angle throughout, making the lines the same thickness. But this is not always true, and i have seen Autopen signatures that do have some variation in line thickness,  although this is rare and will normaly only be seen on a very well set up machine.

Autopen signatures are  always in felt tip pen.  No they are not! An Autopen machine can be fitted with any number of writing instruments which may include a felt tip pen.

Most of todays TV and music stars use an Autopen machine! In fact, very few people use them, and they are mainly used by politicians (Tony Blair has used one a lot, even on his book and bookplates!) astronauts and some of the top A list celebs, plus our own Royal family, but most in fact use either a secretary or stamped or printed signatures

So what do you look for? Tough question, as it can be very hard indeed to spot good Autopen signatures. If you have ever had the chance to see the Christmas cards and other items sent out and signed by the Queen and Prince Phillip, you will know that they have probably the best set up and maintained Autopen machine around, as these are almost impossible to spot, and can only really be confirmed by comparison with other known examples from the same year, as they are so good. You will see these autopen signed cards being offered on ebay (do a search for one now) on a regular basis as 'authentic' by various sellers, but in almost every case they are Autopen signed, even the year date is added by the machine and the signature styles are changed each year as well!

You should look for the dots at the start and finish, the wobbly lines, the very even pen strokes etc,  but those alone will not prove that it is or indeed is not an Autopen.

The one thing that will confirm an Autopen signature as an Autopen is comparison with another known Autopen example, plus some carefull examination under a magnifying glass for some of the obvious traits.

In most cases if you find the same matrix example (remember that each celeb may have more than one signature matrix example) then you will find that each one will be either exactly the same (taking into account the possibility of a different pen) or at the least will have parts of the signature that are exactly the same. Remember too that machines can be adjusted for size and speed, and can make some same matrix signatures appear different, but carefull comparison may show otherwise.

The most common users of Autopen machines were NASA, who sent out tens of thousands of Autopen signed items. Most of these Autopen patterns can be found by a Google search, and i suggest that you spend some time looking at these, and then perhaps consider buying some examples for your own collection. Astronaut Autopen signed lithos are collectible in their own right, and are often purchased to fill that space in a collection. I have at least 100 assorted examples in my own collection, and these prove invaluable when teaching others what to look for, and some of the space examples i have now added to the site for resale which you will find under the Space Autographs category.

So there you have it, that is about the best advice you will ever get on spotting Autopen signatures. If you Google "AUTOGRAFICA" you will find a number of other guides like this including those on Muhammad Ali and Winston Churchill signatures.