7. An optical scanning system capable of automatically compensating for document text line skewing comprising: (a) scanning head means for sequentially scanning across the document to develop a data matrix of pixel oriented digital data bits; (b) logic means for searching said data bits by document column related swaths to determine a plurality of points apparently lying on the document text lines, for determining said text lines' apparent skew angle from said points, and for determining the left, right, top, and bottom boundaries in said data matrix for respective ones of said text lines from said points and said skew angle, said swaths also containing vertically addressable rows and (c) means for picking up the data from said data matrix within said boundaries for use in comparing said data bits to known bit configurations and determining the alpha-numeric contents of the document text; said logic means including means for setting all said pixel oriented digital data bits for each addressable vertical row within each swath to indicate black if any one of said bits initially indicates black.
8. The optical scanning system of claim 7 wherein: said logic means includes means for determining apparent pairs of initiations and terminations of text lines within said swaths, for checking the separation between said apparent initiations and terminations, and for rejecting apparent pairs which do not meet pre-established separation criteria.