The kinematics of movement of all five digits was analyzed during reach-and-grasp tasks for a variety of objects. Ten healthy subjects performed twenty trials involving the grasp of 5 objects of distinct size and shape. Joint angles were recorded and digit trajectories were computed using forward kinematics. For a given subject, fingertip trajectories were consistent across trials. The different-sized objects largely produced movement along different portions of a stereotypical trajectory described by a logarithmic spiral. The spirals fit the actual finger positions with a mean error across all trials of 0.23 cm (±0.25 cm), and accounted for over 98% of the variance in finger position. These patterns were consistent independent of initial finger posture. Subjects did not produce straight-line movements, either in Cartesian space or joint space. The direction of the thumb trajectories exhibited a greater dependence on object type than the finger trajectories, but still utilized a small percentage (less than 5%) of the available workspace. These results suggest that restoration of a small but specific part of the workspace could have significant impact on function following hand impairment.