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Tae Kim says

> Proper stroke order helps ensure the characters look recognizable even when
> you write them quickly or use more cursive styles. --
> <https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/complete/kanji#Stroke_Order>

Though I get the importance of stroke order in general, I'm uncertain how it's
pertinent in already-written text. Given I use a modern ball-point pen or a
2mm pencil when I'm writing (though not in a cursive style), it's hard to
imagine this makes a big difference.

Especially when, as in the accepted answer to this post that came up as a
suggested answer to my question ([Why is stroke order
important?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11479/why-is-stroke-
order-important)) the example isn't comprehensible to me anyway. I can see it
might be a matter of familiarity; but the example is obviously written with a
brush and the stroke order can be sussed from that, if not by me personally at
this time.

Is there something inherently discernible to those who have grown up reading
hand-written kanji even when not written using a brush?
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question
kanji handwriting stroke-order
Stroke Order in Writing
I guess it is partially opinion-based, but the answer is no. Generally it is
not possible to infer the stroke order from a glyph on the screen.

You can think in the reverse. If it were (always) possible to infer the order,
there would be no questions on exams asking for the stroke order.

That said, probably 90% (or a bit less) of the stroke order is obvious for
native speakers.

* * *

Also note that the stroke order is controversial in some ways.
[This](https://bowl-pink.com/post-542/) mentions some characters with multiple
stroke orders.
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Theoretically speaking, if you are only going to read or write kanji like a
computer san-serif font, a wrong stroke order may not severely hurt
readability. But the subtle nuances of each line ending are generally
considered important even when writing in non-cursive style using a ball-point
pen. Please take a look at [this
video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCUOOfWjj4). See the following
questions, too:

  * [Reversing stroke direction in kanji for left-handed writing](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/82961/5010)
  * [Sharp vs rounded (tomed) vertical stroke in kanjis](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/72562/5010)

Note that (semi-)cursive style is not just for calligraphy brushes. For
example, the following was written by a Japanese physician with a perfectly
modern ball-point pen:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AIwSR.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AIwSR.png)  
[(source)](https://twitter.com/lilykazue/status/903900875474616320)

This says BP不安定につき降圧剤追加 ("blood pressure unstable, (will) increase
antihypertensive"). This handwriting is definitely messy, and is nowhere near
beautiful semi-cursive characters found in textbooks or art books. But I still
can read this without difficulty, and it's because this person wrote this at
least respecting the correct stroke order! Many real Japanese handwritten
texts are like this, so some knowledge about correct stroke order (and semi-
cursive style) is important even in modern Japan.
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