This paper presents an important step towards the standardization of research works on Optical Character Recognition in Persian language. It describes the formations of a standard handwritten database, including isolated digits, isolated signs, multi-digit numbers, numerical strings, courtesy amounts, and postal codes. In this regard, binary images of 72,180 samples were extracted from the designed forms. These forms were filled by 180 writers selected from different ages, genders, and jobs. Then these forms were scanned at 300 dpi with a high-speed scanner. Finally, forms are segmented into samples and are stored in bitmap format. This database is named PHOND, Persian Handwritten Optical Numbers & Digits, and it is available to the research community. Comparisons with the previous related databases illustrate the advantages of PHOND against other databases. Different experiments are done using PHOND database and the results are compared with other research works in handwritten recognition. 
Handwriting recognition of digits, signs, and numerical strings in Persian