Adjective for beautiful hand-writing? (きれい, 美しい{うつくしい} ?)


Yesterday I wanted to tell a Japanese friend that his hand writing was really
pretty (he was writing Kanji to show me in a very neat way).

So I said "書き方がとても美しい{うつくしい}！" (instead of the simpler "書き方がとてもきれい"). Since he
didn't correct me I didn't think anything special on the moment, but now I'm
still thinking it might be a weird way to put it. Is it?

I read this page on the difference between きれい and 美しい:
[https://exploringjapanese.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/きれい-vs-
うつくしい/](https://exploringjapanese.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8C%E3%81%84-vs-%E3%81%86%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%81%97%E3%81%84/)
And I get the feeling that 美しい might have been too majestic and formal for
this, am I correct?

Then I thought maybe actually a better way to put this would not be with
"beautiful" adjectives at all! Any thought?




If we want to say that someone's writing is pretty(good), we usually say
字がきれい、字が上手{じょうず}、字がうまい.

I feel 美しい is a bit majestic as you said. And I feel 書き方 means things like
this <http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E6%9B%B8%E3%81%8D%E6%96%B9> rather than
letters itself.




If we want to say that someone's writing is pretty(good), we usually say
字がきれい、字が上手{じょうず}、字がうまい.

I feel 美しい is a bit majestic as you said. And I feel 書き方 means things like
this <http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E6%9B%B8%E3%81%8D%E6%96%B9> rather than
letters itself.

