METHOD FOR RECOGNIZING TABLE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To precisely separate a group of characters in a tubular document having no ruled lines (or where ruled lines are deleted remarkably) and to precisely recognize table structure even when a table is tilted. SOLUTION: Characters whose pitches are within a fixed value in a table are integrated to obtain the group of the characters and the average of the pitches of the characters in the group of the characters is obtained to re-divide the group of the characters based on the average. Next, a group of characters where the mutual positional relation between the re-divided groups of the characters is within fixed inclination are registered as a row. The groups of characters having a relation where coordinates in the horizontal direction of the re-divided groups of the characters are overlapped with each other are registered as a column. Then, the groups of the characters of respective rows and respective columns obtained like above are recognized to prepare data which can be read into a table.