Abstract: In the data input apparatus, a pressure-sensitive tablet, a character recognition section for recognizing handwritten character data input through the tablet, a document memory for sequentially storing a recognition result of the character data, and a power supply for driving the tablet, the recognition control section, and the document memory, are integrally incorporated in a handheld casing. The data input apparatus can be detachabably connected to a document processing apparatus main body via a cable. During an input operation, the data input apparatus is disconnected from the data processing apparatus main body, and performs the input operation independently of the main body, to store the input document data in the document memory. The data input apparatus is connected to the document data processing apparatus, and the document data stored in the document memory is sent to the main body to be processed.

Abstract: In a document reading apparatus, a document is subdivided into a plurality of information fields into which character and/or image information has been recorded in accordance with predetermined format data for a document, and an imae memory has a plurality of write regions, the number of which is smaller than that of the information fields. A system control means inspects present writable regions within the image memory from which the character/image data stored has been read out, thereby permitting the document to be transported prior to the reading of the succeeding information field of the document.

Abstract: A character reading apparatus including a scanning unit manually moved along a line of characters for periodically and optically scanning the character and producing character pattern data concerning the scanned character, a memory accommodating conditional data prescribing effective character patterns and a pattern identification unit for executing identification process for a character pattern obtained from the scanning unit when the character pattern is determined to be effective, is disclosed. The character reading apparatus further includes an optimum character detection circuit, which compares the widths of character patterns represented by effective character pattern data to detect a character pattern having the greatest width and causes identification process to be executed for the character pattern data having the largest width.