PURPOSE: To eliminate the need for manual picture angle correction by providing a means rotating automatically a picture in addition to a picture read means to the picture input device.

CONSTITUTION: A glass plate 34 of the picture input device with a picture 32 mounted thereon is turned around a turning center Lc on the upper side of a case 36. A character 28 in black to be read and a red reference line 38 in parallel with a horizontal line 26 are drawn on the picture 32. Picture data to be read are obtained by moving a carriage 40 with a CCD 10 mounted thereon with a timing belt in a direction at a right angle to a linear arrangement of the CCD 10. An angle correction lever 44 is fixed to one end of a glass base 34 and a torque is delivered to the glass plate 34 by friction with the angle correction device 46. The picture 32 is read by the CCD 10, binarized by a binarized circuit 72, analyzed by a detection processing section 82, the angle correction is calculated from the picture data of a specific color and a rotation means rotates the picture.