The present invention relates a coordinate input device to input a variety of job commands, diagrams or characters, and to store or output the input data. More particularly, the present invention provides an input device for recognizing hybrid coordinates and a method of operating the device. The input device uses an absolute coordinate recognition method and a relative coordinate recognition method in a combined fashion as a coordinate recognition method for inputting the track of the characters or diagrams. By doing so, input coordinates are converted into absolute coordinates, and the tracks of handwritten characters and diagrams are stored as the converted absolute coordinates such that the tracks are displayed on a display of the input device or on a monitor of an information terminal connected to the input device. Accordingly, problems of respective conventional input devices for recognizing coordinates can be solved, the structure of hardware can be simplified, and characters or diagrams can be input with accurate recognition of coordinates.