The encoding of a line pattern representation. The line pattern representation has a changing value in a first dimension as a function of a value in a second dimension. The line pattern representation is segmented into multiple segments along the second dimension. The line pattern representation is then encoded by assigning a quantized value to each of the segments based on the changing value of the line pattern in the first dimension as present within the corresponding segment. If the line pattern generally falls within a given range within a segment, the segment will be assigned a quantized value corresponding to that range. The encoding may be used to assign the line pattern representation into a category.