Abstract: A method and circuit for segmentation of characters from a serially-read character sequence scans the character sequence in a column-by-column format and intermediately stores portions or cut-outs of the scanned characters in the form of an image pattern matrix associated with each portion. The image patterns are thus offset by one column with respect to one another. For each image pattern, a coefficient memory stores several coefficients associated to the specific image pattern which are read out and summed to form a margin value which is associated with the average column of the individual image pattern matrix. A maximum value which occurs in the series of continuously formed margin values signifies a separating point for the associated column.

Abstract: For formation of features for automatic character recognition an image pattern memory matrix corresponding to a respective character is read-out analogous to a sampling at different sampling angles with a multitude of section lines proceeding in accordance with said sampling angles. The evaluation per sampling angle ensues in such manner that there are determined and supplied to a classifier for character recognition the number of the section lines intersecting the character at least once (sampling range); the sum of all section line intersections; the center of gravity of the sampling range; and the scatter within the sampling range.