PURPOSE: To provide a character recognizing device which can change an existing monochromatic document into a color document.

CONSTITUTION: In a step S260, the distances are calculated by a pseudo Bayes identification expression and sorted in the order of shorter distances for selection of the first candidate character. These sorting operations are carried out by the 1st and 2nd recognition dictionaries so that two types of candidate characters are obtained. At the same time, the calculating result of the pseudo Bayes expression is also obtained to each candidate character. In a step S270, the calculating results of both types of candidate characters are compared with each other. Then one of both characters that has the smaller degree of difference (calculating result) is selected, and a Ming or Gothic font is decided. In a step S280, only the character code is sent to a RAM against the Ming font and both color control and character codes are sent to the RAM against the Gothic font respectively. Then the procedure returns to a step S250 where the features are extracted.