With the release of the Newton 2.0 OS, the Newton 1.x OS the paragraph recognizer is now the cursive recognizer in the Newton 2.0 OS. The cursive recognizer learns how to adapt to your handwriting, but the printed recognizer does not.
There are several word lists in the Newton OS. These include names, cities, states and others. The only word list that can be modified by the user is the personal word list and it is imported when upgrading to the Newton 2.0 OS. All other word lists are not imported.
The printed recognizer still searches dictionaries, but considers letter-by-letter possibilities as well treating non-words as less probable.
The basic difference is that the printed recognizer does not does not learn and the letters each need to be separated buy pen lifts.
The cursive recognizer has new algorithms which have been improved for better recognition and speed.
Article Change History:
07 May 1996 - Added additional information on printed recognizer.