9. The computer implemented method of classifying handwritten words according to claim 8 , wherein the distance is computed as Distance ⁡ ( Image_ref , Image_input ) = MIN p [  Image_ref + p * Tangent_Vector ) - Image_input ⁢  ] where Image_Input is an image to be classified, and MIN p is a function minimizing the distance between Image_ref and Image_input over p.
8. The computer implemented method of classifying handwritten words according to claim 7 , wherein a linear approximation to a transformation is computed, the linear approximation being given by the equation: 
 Image_ ref+p *Tangent_Vector, where p is a parameter adjustable from −1 to +1, and Tangent_Vector comprises one or more Tangent_Vector i tangent vectors.