PURPOSE: To process the large size of a document like a newspaper under an inexpensive constitution by reading an object document to process with a hand- scanner.

CONSTITUTION: The title reader is constituted of a CPU 1, image memories 2 and 3, a bus 4, a hand-scanner 5, an input port 6, a program memory 7, a work RAM 8, ROM 9W11 to store a character dictionary, a glossarial dictionary and a reader dictionary, an output port 12, a voice synthesizing part 13 and a speaker unit. Image data constituted of the binary data of a white and a black are read by having a hand-scanner in a user's hand and sliding the hand- scanner on a document to be read. For a preliminary process to segment the image data by one character quantity, to correct the inclination of the read-out image data, to decide whether a vertical writing or a horizontal, to determine a starting position to segment a character and to segment the character are executed. Thus, the large size of a paper face like a newspaper can be processed by the inexpensive mechanism.