1. A method of detecting printed characters of plural fonts interspersed on a document surface, which comprises: a. sensing a character and storing a two-dimensional electronic character image thereof; b. scanning each row of said character image to detect horizontal primary features including the number of horizontal character segments, and the segment length and rightmost segment coordinate for rows having a single horizontal character segment; c. scanning each column of said character image to detect vertical primary features including the number of vertical character segments, and the segment length for those columns having a single vertical segment; d. comparing said horizontal primary features and said vertical primary features of a current row of column with those of previous rows and columns of said character image; e. assigning a classification code to each row and column of said character image indication of the type and order of occurrence of said horizontal and said vertical character segments in successive rows and columns of said character image; f. forming secondary features which reflect the order of occurrence of said classification codes; and g. identifying said character from said secondary features.