Abstract: A character recognition system such as employed for determining characters formed with magnetically impregnated ink on a check wherein a plurality of sequential pulses are generated for each of a plurality of successive regions along a said character responsive to the movement through the system of the check, and wherein there is included means synchronous with clock pulses at a rate equal to the timing pulse rate divided by the quantity of said plurality for determining the discrete signal areas to be observed and decoded, decoding being only in terms of the presence or absence of discrete signal levels of positive and negative pulses.