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Handwriting synthesis: classifications and techniques

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Abstract

Handwriting synthesis is the automatic generation of data that resemble natural handwriting. Although handwriting synthesis has recently gained increasing interest, the area still lacks a stand-alone review. This paper provides classifications for the different aspects of handwriting synthesis. It presents the applications, techniques, and evaluation methods for handwriting synthesis based on the several aspects that we identify. Then, it discusses various synthesis techniques. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the only stand-alone survey on this topic, and we believe it can serve as a useful reference for the researchers in the field of handwriting synthesis.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Qassim University, in addition to King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) for supporting this work under the grant “GSP-18-112.” The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments which greatly improved the presentation of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia

    Yousef Elarian, Radwan Abdel-Aal, Irfan Ahmad & Abdelmalek Zidouri

  2. Qassim University, Qassim, 51452, Saudi Arabia

    Mohammad Tanvir Parvez

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  1. Yousef Elarian
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  2. Radwan Abdel-Aal
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  3. Irfan Ahmad
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Correspondence to Yousef Elarian.

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Elarian, Y., Abdel-Aal, R., Ahmad, I. et al. Handwriting synthesis: classifications and techniques. IJDAR 17, 455–469 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10032-014-0231-x

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