Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

There is no standardized type required for deeds. Now a days most are generated by computer programs, but some are still on type-set or offset press printed forms. There are some rules regarding minimum type size for certain information, but that is it. Type size tells you absolutely nothing about whether it is a forgery or not. Also, bear in mind that unless you are looking at the original document, simple variations in photo copy equipment or printers will result in differences in type size.

You also need to remember that normally it is the title company that prepares the deed and there are numerous title companies each perhaps using a separate sized type.

In the last twenty years or so, 99.44% of deeds have been prepared on computers, usually at title companies. There is no standard type size and no standard line spacing and certainly no standard font -- you'll find deeds done in 11-point Helvetica, 13-point Times Roman, and on and on. Further, the Helvetica produced by a PC is not necessarily identical to that coming from an Apple, nor does my Brother printer necessarily produce documents exactly resembling those printed by a Canon machine. Xerocopies of documents or FAXing them may slightly alter the height and width of the letters.

The detection of forged deeds starts with suspicion about the deed's written contents, then gets into examining signatures, recording dates, notarial records and the like. Appearance of the printing may occasionally have some significance, but is probably not the starting point for deciding which of two or more conflicting instruments is the fake.

The main issue in detecting a forgery is determining whether the deed that was recorded or delivered was the actual document signed by the person who is purported to have signed it.