4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving a selection of one of the candidate characters from the user; and setting the new reference support lines as the candidate support lines for the selected candidate.
1. A method for identifying characters in a handwritten input on a touch-sensitive device, the method comprising: establishing an anchor point on the touch-sensitive device; establishing distances from the anchor point to one or more reference support lines; receiving a handwritten user input via the touch-sensitive device; identifying a set of candidate characters based on the handwritten user input; estimating support lines for each of the candidate characters; associating temporary reference support lines for each candidate character based on: an angle of the estimated support lines for the candidate character and the established anchor point, and the established distances from the anchor point to the one or more reference support lines; for each candidate character, measuring a deviation between the estimated support lines and temporary reference support lines to determine a scale and position deviation from an expectation for each candidate character, and combining the measured deviation with candidate expectation deviation measurements for properties other than scale and position; ranking each candidate character based on a total deviation measurement for each candidate character; and, identifying a best-ranked candidate character based at least in part on a smallest total deviation measurement.