A method and apparatus for locating dot text in an image are described. A set of dots is extracted. A determination of whether a first region of interest (ROI) including the set of dots satisfies selection criteria is performed, where the first region of interest is oriented based on results from a principal component analysis of the set of dots. Responsive to determining that the first ROI does not satisfy the selection criteria, performing the following: removing an outlier dot from the first set of dots to obtain a second set of dots; when the second ROI satisfies the selection criteria, outputting the second ROI as a location of the dot text in the image, and when the second region of interest does not satisfy the selection criteria, repeating the operations until a resulting ROI is determined to satisfy the selection criteria.