To perform layout shaping of characters after handwriting input without character recognition in an electronic board system.

Whether an input character is a first character or not (step 501) and whether it is a symbol or not (step 502) are determined, and when the input character is the first character but not a symbol, reference rectangular information, classification information of the previous character, height information of the previous character, trisected center height information of the previous character, and circumscribed rectangular information of the previous character are stored (steps 503-507). When the input character is a second or more character, whether it is a new character string or not is determined (step 508), and when it is determined not to be a new character string, a classification is determined from the height information of the previous character, the center height information of the previous character, and height circumscribed rectangular information of an input character C, and the height information of the previous character, the center height information of the previous character and the circumscribed rectangular information of the previous character are updated to the information for the input character C (step 509).

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