1. A pattern recognition system for handwritten characters operating on an on-line real-time basis comprising: (a) a character input unit for providing the coordinates of a plurality of points of an input character, the input character being formed by a plurality of strokes, (b) a pre-process unit for normalizing the size and the position of said input character, (c) means for providing a plurality of feature points for each stroke of the input character, (d) a reference pattern storage for providing the coordinates of the feature points for each stroke of a plurality of reference characters, (e) a stroke difference calculator for providing a stroke difference p.sub.i which is the sum of the length between the feature points of the k'th stroke of the input character and the feature points of the i'th stroke of the j'th reference character, where i, j and k are integers, (f) a storage for storing the stroke difference p.sub.i, (g) means for operating the members (e) and (f) repetitively by incrementing the value i for all the strokes of the j'th reference character, (h) means for detecting the minimum value p.sub.min among the stroke differences p.sub.i thus stored, (i) means for operating the members (e), (f), (g) and (h) repetitively for by incrementing the value k all the strokes of the input character, and accumulating the value p.sub.min to provide the value d.theta..sub.j, which is the pattern difference between the input character and the j'th reference character, (j) a storage for storing the value d.theta..sub.j, (k) means for operating the members (i) and (j) repetitively for all the reference characters to provide the set of d.theta..sub.j for the given input character, (l) means for detecting the minimum value among the values d.theta..sub.j, and determining the input character as the reference character which provides the minimum value of d.theta..sub.j.