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).

Examples

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.

See also

• Allography

Penmanship