1. A method for identifying a selected ideographic character in a set of ideographic characters, the method comprising providing a library of character representations, each character representation in said library of character representations representing a respective ideographic character in said set of ideographic characters, each said character representation comprising a plurality of predetermined constituent characteristics of said respective ideographic character represented by said character representation, said plurality of predetermined constituent characteristics of said respective character comprising for each of a plurality of predetermined character strokes of said respective ideographic character a plurality of stroke characteristics, and providing a plurality of input signals for each of a plurality of input character strokes, said input signals corresponding to at least two of the stroke characteristics of the character stroke of said selected ideographic character corresponding to each of said predetermined character strokes, said plurality of input character strokes comprising, for ideographic characters comprising more than three character strokes, fewer than the total number of character strokes of said ideographic character, and identifying in said library said selected ideographic character based on said plurality of input signals.