3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step of segmenting said skeletonized word into primitives comprises: beginning at a first one of said feature points, tracing adjacent pixels until a second one of said feature points is encountered, said first and second feature points and said adjacent pixels thereby constituting a primitive; and storing the location of said first and second feature points and the number and direction of pixels between said first and second feature points.
6. The method according to claim 3 further comprising: if said second point was not a terminal point, repeating the preceding step until one of said primitives contains a feature point which is said terminal end point.