1. An improved method for optically reading printed characters using an optical character recognition (OCR) apparatus that represents a character as a black pixel shape within a pixel box circumscribing the black pixel shape and for inputting the OCR recognized characters to a text processing system that represents characters in outline font form in which each character is printed within a character box that is larger than a box circumscribing the character, comprising the steps of: optically scanning and recognizing a printed character with an optical character recognition (OCR) apparatus that represents the scanned character as a black pixel shape to be recognized within a pixel box that circumscribes the black pixel shape; the OCR apparatus generating a character code identifying the recognized black pixel shape and a size code identifying the size of the circumscribing pixel box; determining from an outline font table an enlargement ratio for the recognized character, the enlargement ratio being a characteristic outline font parameter for the recognized character which is the ratio between a box dimension of a box that circumscribes the recognized character when printed in outline font form and the same box dimension of the character box of the recognized character when printed in outline font form; and enlarging the size code of the recognized character by the determined enlargement ratio and inputting the resulting enlarged size code as a character box size code for the recognized character to the text processing system.
1. An improved method for optically reading printed characters using an optical character recognition (OCR) apparatus that represents a character as a black pixel shape within a pixel box circumscribing the black pixel shape and for inputting the OCR recognized characters to a text processing system that represents characters in outline font form in which each character is printed within a character box that is larger than a box circumscribing the character, comprising the steps of: optically scanning and recognizing a printed character with an optical character recognition (OCR) apparatus that represents the scanned character as a black pixel shape to be recognized within a pixel box that circumscribes the black pixel shape; the OCR apparatus generating a character code identifying the recognized black pixel shape and a size code identifying the size of the circumscribing pixel box; determining from an outline font table an enlargement ratio for the recognized character, the enlargement ratio being a characteristic outline font parameter for the recognized character which is the ratio between a box dimension of a box that circumscribes the recognized character when printed in outline font form and the same box dimension of the character box of the recognized character when printed in outline font form; and enlarging the size code of the recognized character by the determined enlargement ratio and inputting the resulting enlarged size code as a character box size code for the recognized character to the text processing system. 3. An improved method as defined in claim 1 wherein a string of adjacent printed characters are scanned and recognized and the enlarged size codes for the string of characters are further modified so as to be all made equal to each other before being inputted to the text processing system.