“ETL Character Database” is a collection of images of about 1.2 million hand-written and machine-printed numerals, symbols, Latin alphabets and Japanese characters and compiled in 9 datasets (ETL-1 to ETL-9). This database has been collected by Electrotechnical Laboratory (currently reorganized as the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)) under the cooperation with Japan Electronic Industry Developement Association (currently reorganized as Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association), universities and other research organizations for character recognition researches from 1973 to 1984.