Legibility and accuracy are the key features of every handwritten prescription. Large number of medication errors and even death of patients may occur due to illegible prescriptions. The present study was undertaken to assess the handwritten O.P.D. prescriptions of a tertiary care Medical College and Hospital in India, focusing the aspects of legibility and accuracy. For this study, scanned copies of 1268 O.P.D prescriptions were taken from hospital pharmacy over a period of 6 months (Feb 2015 to July 2015) and analyzed. Results were expressed in percentages. About 98% prescriptions scored 3 and 2% prescriptions scored 4.There was no prescription with miss-spelt drug names. Formulations and drug strengths were not mentioned in 11.1% and 7% of cases respectively. Abbreviations of names of medicines were written by 11% of prescribers. Seventy nine percent of prescribers preferred to use archaic terminology. Twenty percent of the prescribers did not put the leading zero where applicable and only 4% of the prescribers used capital letter. Generation of an error-free and legible prescription requires adequate care and attention about the multiple components which affect the legibility and accuracy of prescriptions. E-prescribing and computerized documentation may eliminate errors in prescribing.