Orthography
In SignWriting, a combination of iconic symbols for handshapes, body locations, facial expressions, contacts, and movement are used to represent words in sign language. Since SignWriting is pictographic, in the unusual sense of being an iconic featural script, no phonemic analysis of a language is required to write it with SignWriting. A person who has learned the system can "feel out" unfamiliar signs in the same way an English speaking person can "sound out" unfamiliar words written in the Latin alphabet. However, as with sounded-out English, this means that a single sign may be written in multiple ways.
Words may be written from the point of view of the signer or the viewer. However, almost all publications use the point of view of the signer, and assume the right hand is dominant. Sutton designed the script to be written horizontally, like English, and from the point of view of the observer, but changed it to vertical and from the point of view of the signer, to conform to the wishes of Deaf writers.
Read more about this topic: SignWriting