OPTICAL CHARACTER READER

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To read an image memory in steps according to the skew of a document, performs image transfer of all lines on the document, and shorten the processing time by calculating the effective length and a correction direction by a skew quantity calculation part and setting them in a skew correcting circuit. SOLUTION: When the document 2 is carried to a read position by a conveyance mechanism 1, a CCD sensor 3 acquires a one-line image of the document 2. The image is written in the image memory 6 by bits (pixel) from a shift register 4. A read control part 35 reads an image of the document 2 and finds a signal and a correction value for a Y-correction direction. The skew correcting circuit 37 generates a Y-correction enable signal each time pixels are read by the correction value in the scanning direction, Y addresses are counted up or down in the correction direction with the Y-correction enable signal, and Y correction is performed to make a read of the image memory 6. A character segmentation part 8 refers to format data according to the image data to segment one-character information. A recognition part 9 matches it against a specific recognition dictionary 10 and sends the recognition result back to a host device 12.