Abstract: One dimensional horizontal and vertical reference projections are obtained for a reference character template. Similar one dimensional horizontal and vertical pattern projections are obtained for an unknown character pattern. The horizontal reference projection and horizontal pattern projection are compared, and the vertical reference projection and vertical pattern projection are compared. The reference character template is then positioned with respect to the unknown character pattern based on such comparisons in order to calculate a correlation coefficient between the two. In certain cases, the unknown character can be identified based solely on its one dimensional projections. Multiple characters in a character pattern are identified either one at a time or as a group. In the latter case, all possible combinations are generated using tree search processing, and the best combination is selected.