Abstract: A character recognition system incorporating a matrix of nine primary locations and four secondary locations, has a family of operator readable and machine readable alpha-numeric characters formed in relation to the matrix. Characters are designated by marking or not marking selected ones of the primary and secondary locations. The primary locations are scanned first to determine whether the combination of primary locations which is marked determines a single character. If not, the secondary locations are scanned to determine a unique character.

Abstract: A character recognition system incorporating a three-by-three matrix has a family of operator readable and machine readable alphanumeric characters formed in relation to a three-by-three matrix for designating a plurality of individual parameters in response to whether discrete locations within the three-by-three matrix are occupied or not occupied by a portion of the character. The characters are made available in machine readable form by being inscribed on a form which is printed with a plurality of circles which designate the discrete locations and which are arranged in each of a number of rectangular three-by-three arrays, to indicate graphically the positions which are scanned during reading of the form. Machine readable characters are inscribed in the rectangles through and around the circles, in accordance with a characteristic coding scheme, which incorporates up to 512 different individual characters.