Abstract: A document reader having a scanner. The layout of the image data read by the scanner from a document is analyzed. In accordance with the analysis of the lay out, the image data is divided into blocks, and the sequence in which to read characters from these blocks is determined. A keyboard or a mouse is operated, whenever necessary, thereby deleting any block and changing the sequence of reading characters from the blocks. Characters are read from the document in the sequence changed.

Abstract: In an optical character reading apparatus for optically reading characters recorded on a paper sheet, when a character string divided based on an interval of characters in a document includes a hyphen, a character string to be spelling-checked is generated according to the position of a hyphen. When the hyphen is present at the beginning of the next line. When the hyphen is not present at the end of line, the hyphen is deleted to divide the character string into a plurality of character strings.

Abstract: In an optical character recognition device for optically recognizing characters written on a sheet, the sheet size, the location of the characters on the sheet and the like are determined based on a sheet image detected from the sheet by use of a scanner. Further, in the character recognition device according to a preferred embodiment of this invention, the sheet size, the location of the characters on the sheet and the like can be displayed on a layout displaying screen. With the character recognition device, the location of the processed character and the recognition result or the recognized character can be independently displayed on a substantially real time basis in the recognition process.

Abstract: A scanning control apparatus includes motor driving circuits and a control circuit. The motor driving circuit drives a motor in a backward direction for a predetermined time counted by a counter. Then, the motor driving circuit drives the motor in a forward direction until the forward velocity of the motor becomes constant before enabling the output from a line scanner.