1. A method for matching fingerprint images, the method comprising the steps of: acquiring a query image of a fingerprint; extracting a minutiae set from the query image; comparing the minutiae set of the query image with a minutiae set of at least one template image to determine transformation parameters to align the query image to the at least one template image and to determine a minutiae matching score; constructing a ridge feature map of the query image; comparing the ridge feature map of the query image to a ridge feature map of the at least one template image to determine a ridge feature matching score; and combining the minutiae matching score with the ridge feature matching score resulting in an overall score, the overall score being compared to a threshold to determine if the query image and the at least one template image match.