A method (300, 500) for searching a line pattern representation amongst a collection of line pattern representations, each of the line pattern representations in the collection being associated with an encoded representation thereof, the method comprising: an act of detecting an input gesture as input by a user into a computing system; an act of automatically matching the input gesture against each of a plurality of line pattern representations, each representing a line pattern having a changing value in a first dimension as a function of a value in a second dimension, wherein the first dimension is a vertical dimension and the second dimension is a horizontal dimension, the act of automatically matching the input gesture against each of a plurality of line pattern representations comprising: an act of encoding (502, 504) the input gesture by segmenting the line pattern associated with the input gesture into a plurality of segments along the second dimension and assigning a quantized value to each of the segments based on the changing value in the first dimension as present within the corresponding segment, wherein said assigning the quantized value to each of the segments comprises calculating a mean of the line pattern within the corresponding segment and assigning an identifier for the range within which that mean falls for that segment; and an act of comparing the encoded representation of the input gesture against the encoded representations of each of the line pattern representations in the collection, the encoded representations of each of the line pattern representations being obtained by segmenting each of the line pattern representations into a plurality of segments along the second dimension and assigning a quantized value to each of the segments for each of the line pattern representations based on the changing value in the first dimension as present within the corresponding segment; and an act of visualizing at least one line pattern representation of the matched set on a display of the computing system. an act of detecting an input gesture as input by a user into a computing system; an act of automatically matching the input gesture against each of a plurality of line pattern representations, each representing a line pattern having a changing value in a first dimension as a function of a value in a second dimension, wherein the first dimension is a vertical dimension and the second dimension is a horizontal dimension, the act of automatically matching the input gesture against each of a plurality of line pattern representations comprising: an act of encoding (502, 504) the input gesture by segmenting the line pattern associated with the input gesture into a plurality of segments along the second dimension and assigning a quantized value to each of the segments based on the changing value in the first dimension as present within the corresponding segment, wherein said assigning the quantized value to each of the segments comprises calculating a mean of the line pattern within the corresponding segment and assigning an identifier for the range within which that mean falls for that segment; and an act of comparing the encoded representation of the input gesture against the encoded representations of each of the line pattern representations in the collection, the encoded representations of each of the line pattern representations being obtained by segmenting each of the line pattern representations into a plurality of segments along the second dimension and assigning a quantized value to each of the segments for each of the line pattern representations based on the changing value in the first dimension as present within the corresponding segment; and an act of encoding (502, 504) the input gesture by segmenting the line pattern associated with the input gesture into a plurality of segments along the second dimension and assigning a quantized value to each of the segments based on the changing value in the first dimension as present within the corresponding segment, wherein said assigning the quantized value to each of the segments comprises calculating a mean of the line pattern within the corresponding segment and assigning an identifier for the range within which that mean falls for that segment; and an act of comparing the encoded representation of the input gesture against the encoded representations of each of the line pattern representations in the collection, the encoded representations of each of the line pattern representations being obtained by segmenting each of the line pattern representations into a plurality of segments along the second dimension and assigning a quantized value to each of the segments for each of the line pattern representations based on the changing value in the first dimension as present within the corresponding segment; and an act of visualizing at least one line pattern representation of the matched set on a display of the computing system.