1. A character region extracting apparatus which extracts a character region through character stroke width calculation, the character region extracting apparatus comprising: a candidate character region detecting unit for producing a binary image including a candidate character region from an original image; an information acquisition unit for extracting a character outline from the candidate character region, and acquiring character outline information for the extracted outline; a character region information acquisition unit for setting a representative character stroke width and a representative character angle in each pixel forming the outline, on the basis of the character outline information; and a character region determining unit for determining a character existing region in the candidate character region by confirming the ratio of effective representative stroke widths and effective angles as compared to the entire length of the outline.