Personal identification based on handprint has been gaining more attention with the increasing needs of high level of security. In this study a novel approach for human recognition based on handprint is proposed. Wavelet transform was used to extract features presented in the palm image based on wavelet zero-crossing method. Firstly the wavelet transform of the whole palm image at the fourth level was worked out, which results in four matrices; three of them are detail matrices (i.e., horizontal, vertical and diagonal) as well as one approximation matrix. Throughout this study, only the detail matrices were used because the required information (i.e., hand lines and curves) is included in those matrices. Sixteen features were extracted from each detail matrix, and then arranged in one vector. Consequently, for each palm sample a feature vector consisting of 48 input features of the used neural network was obtained. For this purpose, a database consisting of 400 palm images belonging to 40 people at the rate of 10 images per person was built. Practical tests outcome showed that the designed system successfully indentified 91.36% of the tested images.