Techniques for recognizing characters in an image of a physical artifact may involve identifying contours in the image and sorting identified contours into different groups. A first group of contours may be analyzed to locate an array of lines in the image of the bank check. Locating each line in the line array may involve processing image data to allocate each contour in the first group to a particular line. After the array of lines is located, a second group of contours that each intersects a line may be analyzed. Any portions of each of the second group of contours that fit within upper and lower boundaries of a given line are added to the given line. After processing the first and second groups of contours, contours within a given line are analyzed to determine any individual identifiable characters. Each character may then be analyzed for character recognition.

Techniques for recognizing characters in an image of a physical artifact may involve identifying contours in the image and sorting identified contours into different groups. A first group of contours may be analyzed to locate an array of lines in the image of the bank check. Locating each line in the line array may involve processing image data to allocate each contour in the first group to a particular line. After the array of lines is located, a second group of contours that each intersects a line may be analyzed. Any portions of each of the second group of contours that fit within upper and lower boundaries of a given line are added to the given line. After processing the first and second groups of contours, contours within a given line are analyzed to determine any individual identifiable characters. Each character may then be analyzed for character recognition.