PURPOSE: To accurately recognize characters in any form by eliminating the erroneous recognition due to the difference in character position between the image of a read form and form format data which is a defect of a conventional form character recognition device.

CONSTITUTION: An origin measuring means 6A which reads in image data as the output or an image sensor 5 and counts numbers of dots of black data in vertical and horizontal directions of the whole of this image data to generate histograms and obtains the origin position of a form 1 by the change of histograms and a character recognition means 8 which recognizes form characters based on histograms, the origin position, and preliminarily generated form format data 7 are provided.