Allograph (handwriting)
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Figure 1. Examples of allographs for the letter t and the letter k |
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Figure 2. Samples of the word optimum, written by different persons. Regardless of trivial size and slant differences, it is the use of different allographs which characterizes a writer's hand. |
In
graphonomics and
handwriting recognition, the concept of
allograph is concerned with the fact that in
handwriting, one particular letter from an
alphabet can be realized using a number of shapes. The most evident occurrence of an allograph is in the upper-case and lower-case shape for one letter (cf.,
a vs
A).
Within a
writing system, individual writers use their personalized and characteristic shape for a letter, as in Figure 1. This poses many problems in
optical character recognition. As an example, Figure 2 shows many ways in which writers may give shape to the word
optimum in the
Latin alphabet.
*
Allography
