Recovering the recording sequence in scanned handwritten texts

The article deals with the problem of recognizing handwritten texts from raster images. A method to recover the sequence of records in a handwritten text is described, that will reduce the task of offline-recognition to the task of online-recognition. The method is based on finding the Eulerian path with the minimum weight in the handwritten symbol skeleton graph. Some numerical characteristics are considered as weights, they show the complexity of the transition from one edge to another through a common vertex. A table of all possible combinations of pairs is constructed for this purpose. If there isn't Eulerian path in the original graph, the path is searched with the minimum number of breaks. The definition of a virtual edge is introduced, the transition on it is the formation of a gap in the path. It is necessary to split edges into pairs and calculate the weights at the vertices of odd multiplicity. The pathfinding algorithm in the skeleton of a symbol is considered, it is based on the Fleury's algorithm of searching Eulerian path.