12. A keyboard for encoding Chinese type characters in accordance with five basic strokes and the sequence thereof comprising three horizontal ranks, each rank comprising about ten keys wherein all character coding keys locate, wherein five said keys locating in positions in the middle rank are monographic and representative of a basic stroke, and about twenty three said keys are polygraphic, representative of a sequence of basic strokes of two or more, at least a portion of said polygraphic keys being digraphic, means responsive to the actuation of said keys to generate a code signal representative of the stroke or sequence of strokes represented thereby.
19. Apparatus defined in claim 12, 13 or 14 further including output information means responsive to said code signals, writing means responsive to said output information means.