1. Apparatus for recognizing a string of characters of hand written text in an image loaded in a computing system, the apparatus comprising: holistic recognition means for recognizing the string of characters as a whole and generating a first answer list and a segmentation list, the first answer list containing a plurality of recognition answers for the string of characters in the image each answer having a confidence value that the answer is correct, the segmentation list containing segmentation information separating the character features making up each character in the answer; analytical recognition means responsive to the segmentation list for recognizing a plurality of characters individually and generating a second answer list for the string of characters in the image each answer having a confidence value that the answer is correct; and means responsive to the first answer list and the second answer list for finding the best recognition answer for the string of characters.