Abstract: After an optical character reader initially identifies individual characters in a character array by matching their images with dictionary patterns, its character recognition system assigns upper and lower labels to the characters according to their highest and lowest positions relative to the character array. If these assigned values contradict with the labels preassigned to the identified characters, corrections are made accordingly and certain frequently occurring types of errors are checked in terms of these labels. Upper and lower case letters which are shaped similarly and certain similarly looking symbols can thus be correctly identified.