1. A system for enhancing the recognition of characters, comprising: recognition means responsive to a sequence of character patterns for producing a sequence of character codes identifying said characters with respect to a predetermined plurality of categories; coding means coupled to said recognition means for translating a plurality of said character codes to a plurality of reduced codes corresponding to a plurality of sets of said categories, the number of said sets being substantially smaller than the number of said categories; first storage means responsive to said reduced codes for producing a context code representing one set of said categories; second storage means for holding a plurality of confusion codes associated with a predetermined one of said character codes, each of said confusion codes identifying one of said categories; and gating means responsive to said context code for selecting one of said confusion codes.