The papers in this special section focus on handwriting and drawing processes for user-centered systems. The papers provide a wide and updated overview of the frontier of research in the field of humancentered systems based on drawing and handwriting processing. Through the papers, some of the most relevant directions of further research are highlighted with specific attention to components related to human–machine interaction. The Guest Editors hope that this issue brings forth the importance of automated systems related to automatic processing of drawing and handwriting.