PURPOSE: To achieve a speed-up of reduction of a character data by arranging a reduction register into which an original data is written as stored in a digitization memory, a blank print memory into which a reduction data is written as outputted from the reduction register and a display device to display and monitor a blank character reduced in the blank print memory.

CONSTITUTION: The contents of a digitization memory 21 as a place where a data taken in from an imaging section 19 is stored temporarily are written into a buffer memory 26 and blank print memory 30 with a display control section 25 according to purposes. In a reduction display, when a data is written into a blank print memory 30, a display control section 25 is worked to write an original data of the digitization memory 21 into a reduction register 101 and a data reduced sideways is obtained. The data reduced sideways is written into the blank print memory 30 and a blank character reduced is displayed and monitored on a display device 32. This enables generation of a reduction data efficiently at a high speed.