3. Apparatus for recognizing a script written character comprising: character entering means for entering and receiving the characters; digitizing means for digitizing the characters; storage means for storing the digitized characters; topological feature extracting means for extracting topological features representative of respective characters; means for comparing the topological features of a character with the topological features of a plurality of reference characters defining a set of reference characters, each reference character corresponding to a specific character; and logic means for identifying which reference character of the set of reference characters has topological features most closely corresponding to the topological features of the digitized character, wherein the logic means evaluates a score Sj for each of the reference characters (Ncar) and identifies the reference character with the lowest score as that corresponding to the script written character; and wherein the score Sj is given by: ##EQU3## where: S=stroke number of the input character, Sj=stroke number of the j-th reference character, fi=response of the i-th feature to the input character, fij=response of the i-th feature to the j-th reference character, Ni=number of intersections of the i-th line with the input character, Nij=number of intersections of the i-th line with the j-th reference character, SW=stroke weight, and IW=intersection weight.
3. Apparatus for recognizing a script written character comprising: character entering means for entering and receiving the characters; digitizing means for digitizing the characters; storage means for storing the digitized characters; topological feature extracting means for extracting topological features representative of respective characters; means for comparing the topological features of a character with the topological features of a plurality of reference characters defining a set of reference characters, each reference character corresponding to a specific character; and logic means for identifying which reference character of the set of reference characters has topological features most closely corresponding to the topological features of the digitized character, wherein the logic means evaluates a score Sj for each of the reference characters (Ncar) and identifies the reference character with the lowest score as that corresponding to the script written character; and wherein the score Sj is given by: ##EQU3## where: S=stroke number of the input character, Sj=stroke number of the j-th reference character, fi=response of the i-th feature to the input character, fij=response of the i-th feature to the j-th reference character, Ni=number of intersections of the i-th line with the input character, Nij=number of intersections of the i-th line with the j-th reference character, SW=stroke weight, and IW=intersection weight. 4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein an interface is provided between the apparatus and a computer such that the interface passes the identified characters to the computer thereby forming the instructions for the computer.