An autograph is a document written entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one transcribed by an amanuensis or a copyist (see allography). The meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.

As the word is used by non-historians, it has come to mean a person's signature. This term is used in particular for the practice of collecting autographs of celebrities.

In East Asia, an autograph from a famous gentry is regarded as an honour. The value of an item bearing a high official's autograph could rise incredibly. In ancient dynasty of China, an autograph from an emperor of that dynasty was priceless but selling an item bearing it could be an offensive crime.

In Europe and North America, asking for a celebrity's autograph used to be seen as a kid's practice up to only a few decades ago. The boom of collecting autographs as a hobby came during the 1980s, and, as a consequence, many memorabilia dealers took notice, and what used to be an innocent hobby lost that innocence as both dealers and celebrities began to charge money for their signatures.

It should be noted that many celebrities, like boxers Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Wilfredo Gomez, Wilfredo Benitez, Hector 'Macho' Camacho, Sugar Ray Leonard and Julio Cesar Chavez, baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr., singers J.C. Chasez (OF NSYNC fame), Alanis Morissette, Amber Rose, Jessica Simpson, Frankie Valli, and the members of Green Day, actors like Drew Carey, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, director Steven Spielberg, former President Bill Clinton as well as many other celebrities, still love signing autographs for free for the fans, keeping it a very interesting hobby to this day. Hilary Duff has gone as far as publicly lashing out at some of her fellow teen idol stars who avoid autograph collectors. Art Carney was another person who enjoyed signing autographs, until his passing in November of 2003. It is people like these who make taking autograph collecting as a hobby worth-while.

Many people however, are not usually willing to distribute their signature- at least not for free. Entertainment-wise, the list includes Cameron Diaz, Bruce Willis, Tobey Maguire, and Britney Spears. Sports-wise, the list includes most baseball players, such as the majority of the New York Yankees, the late Joe Dimaggio, and most notoriously, Barry Bonds. Other sports stars that try to avoid signing whenever possible are Bill Russell, who does not sign at all, and most NBA stars with huge contracts. The legendary Michael Jordan, would not and could not sign for most of his career because people were putting each other's lives at risk by scrambling to get the icon's autograph that is worth at least hundreds of dollars. Jordan however, has frequently signed at the more peaceful environments, such as golf tournaments. It was as much or worse of a scramble to get Michael Jackson's autograph. A typical scenario would be hundreds of fans crushing each other while waiting by Jackson's hotel and Jackson signing five or ten autographs in the midst of rushing to his vehicle.

During the 1990s, many people started forging celebrity autographs and selling them as real, to the point of necessitating the involvement of the FBI. This enraged some of the celebrities, who would just stop signing autographs for everyone or sign exclusive deals with companies to distribute their autographs, to make sure everyone who got their autographs by paying for it was getting a real autograph and not a fake one.

Many dealers also would wait for the celebrity to come out of the place were they were at for hours, and then put 25 photos in front of them for the celebrity to sign and then in turn, the dealer could sell 24 of them. Other dealers also would find the celebrity's home address and write them asking for autographs multiple times. The celebrities, of course, sometimes grow tired of that and make it a point to sign only 1 autograph per person, and in the mail case, although there is no way they could all use to know who have they signed for at multiple times through the mail, boxer George Foreman has a peculiar way of knowing: He keeps the names and addresses of every person who writes him asking for an autograph in his personal computer, so that whenever he receives a letter, he will know if the person is a fan who admires him or just a dealer who wants to sell his autographs and needs more of them.

Some of the most popular areas to collect autographs are: sports and movie stars, teen idols, singers and music groups, political, social and religious leaders, scientists, astronauts and authors.

A signed photo of Christopher Reeve, perhaps autographed by an autopen machine, as the Man of Steel, Superman

Autograph was also the name of a record label; see: Autograph Records See also tangible investments

See Also: Autograph hobby timeline, Autograph Collector Magazine, Autopen