Patent US 5,581,633

In a character segmenting apparatus the extracting section extracts the character segment pattern on the basis of the connection data imparted to the segment pattern. The character size calculating section calculates a histogram of a lengthwise or crosswise character size of a circumscribed rectangle circumscribed with the extracted character segment pattern and also calculates an average character size and its variance value on the basis of the histogram of the character size. The character pitch calculating section calculates a histogram of a pitch between the circumscribed rectangles and also calculates an average character pitch and its variance value on the basis of the histogram of the character pitch. The integrating section integrates the character while changing character integrating conditions in accordance with the average character size, the size variance value, the average character pitch and the pitch variance value. The segment integrating section integrates the character by distinguishing the small segment patterns in the character segment pattern on the basis of the average character size.