1. A character recognition method for scanning, reading and recognizing normalized characters consisting essentially of vertical and horizontal lines marked on a record medium, and in which the scanning cycle consists of consecutive optical scannings in a vertical direction of the field covered by a normalized character until the whole of a normalized character has also been scanned in a horizontal direction, comprising the steps of: detecting specific vertical characteristics contained in the characters by the use of waveforms of specified characteristics synthesized from the signals obtained by a single scanning cycle in a vertical direction, and detecting the number of vertical scanning cycles in which said specified characteristics exist during the totality of the consecutive vertical scannings, said number being indicative of character characteristics in a horizontal direction, thereby detecting the two-dimensional characteristics contained in the characters.