PURPOSE: To improve using procedure by detecting the height of a pen from the surface of a plate and its holding time, when the pen is held at a prescribed height for a fixed period or more, deciding the period as the division of characters or patterns.

CONSTITUTION: At the eight stroke parts of a Chinese character 'HAYASHI' (wood) e.g., pen height information Z is '0'. Intervals between respective strokes are Zexceeds a threshold (dotted line). Since the output period of the raised ON signal in Fig. 211 is shorter than the fixed period T, a times is reset before time-out. On the other hand, the output time of the ON signal raised in Fig. 212 is longer than the T, so that the timer outputs a time-out signal after the passage of the time T to indicate the division of the character.