1. A method for segmenting words from a textual line image, the method comprising the steps of: extracting features from the textual line image using a featurization component of a line segmentation engine residing on a computer system; calculating breaks using the extracted features using the line segmentation engine; using a classifier of the line segmentation engine for classifying each of the breaks into classes, the classes including an inter-word break class and an inter-character break class, and for determining probabilities that classified breaks are members of the classes; and segmenting words using a word break engine residing on the computer system, the words being segmented from the textual line image using the breaks and probabilities.