Character recognition device

A character pattern is extracted as a rectangle from the inputted picture image data and the number of picture element points corresponding to the direction code of the boundary point of the character portion is provided as the boudnary direction density for each region of the recognition object character pattern for each sub- region provided by the division of character pattern. The scanning operation is performed with respect to the side opposite respectively from four sides of the extracted rectangle. The picture element point which changes from the background to the character portion is defined as a change point. The picture element string number is increased by one each time the change point is detected so as to add the picture string number to each picture element.