Abstract: The invention is an automatic method and related apparatus for identifying fingerprints by means of comparing the minutiae of each fingerprint in a data base of fingerprints with selected ones of precomputed vector images of search minutiae in a search print to be identified, in order to determine the existence or not of a fit between the minutiae of a file print and the preselected search minutiae images, in position and angle, a result of such comparison being a matching score indicating the probability of a match between the search print and one or more file prints, the basis for selection of such precomputed vector images being the identity between the angle of a file print minutiae and the angle of a precomputed vector images of the search minutiae.