On defining signatures for the retrieval and the classification of graphical drop caps

Ancient graphical documents are invaluable heritages which have been handed down since generations. They possess both intellectual and spiritual worth for humanity. In this context, many digitization processes have been started, producing very large warehouse of images. These huge amount of data raise the problem of indexing the information in order to make easier navigation in the databases. In the context of a French research program, called MADONNE, this paper proposes a set of complementary contributions concerning ancient graphic images indexing