ContactPerson: slavik@cse.buffalo.edu Remote host: tide70.microsoft.com Remote ident: unknown ### Begin Citation ### Do not delete this line ### %A Petr Slavik and Venu Govindaraju %T An Overview of Run-length Encoding of Handwritten Word Images %R 2000-09 %D August 25, 2000 %I Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SUNY Buffalo %K Handwriting Recognition, Image Representation, Image Processing, Run-Length Encoding %Y I.4; I.5 %X Analysis of handwritten word images is closely tied to the method of representing the images. Different representations have their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. In this paper, we propose a novel method of encoding handwritten images using vertical runs that significantly simplifies the implementation of several image-processing tasks pertaining to handwriting recognition. We demonstrate the advantages of both horizontal and vertical run-length encoding schemes and compare them to other widely used representations like chain-code and bitmap. We illustrate ease of use of horizontal runs for correcting the slant angle, image smoothing, and base-line detection and vertical runs for correcting the skew angle and character segmentation. We believe this paper will serve as a useful tutorial in image representation schemes used in handwriting analysis and recognition.