Editing Handwriting recognition (section)

{{short description|Ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{About|recognizing the specific letters and words in hand-written text|recognizing the specific person who wrote hand-written text|Graphanalysis}}

[[File:Signiture of country stat, Tex Williams- 2013-04-07 11-37.jpg|thumbnail|Signature of country star Tex Williams]]

'''Handwriting recognition''' ('''HWR'''), also known as '''handwritten text recognition''' ('''HTR'''), is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible [[handwriting|handwritten]] input from sources such as [[paper]] documents, [[photograph]]s, [[touch-screen]]s and other devices.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Förstner |first=Wolfgang |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/913706869 |title=Mustererkennung 1999 : 21. DAGM-Symposium Bonn, 15.-17. September 1999 |date=1999 |others=Joachim M. Buhmann, Annett Faber, Petko Faber |isbn=978-3-642-60243-6 |location=Berlin, Heidelberg |oclc=913706869 |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schenk |first=Joachim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/609418875 |title=Mensch-maschine-kommunikation : grundlagen von sprach- und bildbasierten benutzerschnittstellen |date=2010 |publisher=Springer |others=Gerhard Rigoll |isbn=978-3-642-05457-0 |location=Heidelberg |oclc=609418875}}</ref> The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning ([[optical character recognition]]) or [[intelligent word recognition]]. Alternatively, the movements of the pen tip may be sensed "on line", for example by a pen-based computer screen surface, a generally easier task as there are more clues available. A handwriting recognition system handles formatting, performs correct [[Segment (handwriting)|segmentation]] into characters, and finds the most possible words.