RETRIEVAL SYSTEM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a retrieval system capable of improving convenience/ operability. SOLUTION: In this retrieval system, a non-electronic document such as paper medium is scanned by a multifunction machine 1, characters are recognized by a server device 2 on the basis of image data provided by this scan, the character string data of the recognized result are stored as a retrieval target while being related to the image data and this server device 2 receives the retrieving instruction of the character string from a client device 3, retrieves the character string data containing the instructed character string and provides the correspondent image data to the client device 3 on the basis of the retrieved result.