1. A method for scanning bar codes oriented at angles by estimating dominating orientations of the bar codes and reading the bar codes along the dominating orientations, wherein the method comprises: scanning, with an image sensor circuit of a code reader, a barcode image on an object, analyzing, by the code reader, pixels ( 1. .. N) of the barcode image to compute gradient vectors (g 1. .. g N ) that identify, for each respective pixel, a direction of intensity change and a magnitude of intensity change for the respective pixel in comparison to neighboring pixels, computing, by the code reader, representative angles (α 1. .. α N ) that represent respective representing angles of the gradient vectors (g 1. .. g N ) that were computed for the pixels of the barcode image, obtaining, by the code reader, a target number (n) of dominating orientations of the barcode image, obtaining, by the code reader, a first sum (a) comprising added sine factors, the sine factors being based on computed sines, which sines are computed for angles that correspond to said representative angles (α 1. .. α N ) multiplied with two times the target number (n) of dominating orientations of the barcode image, obtaining, by the code reader, a second sum (b) comprising added cosine factors, the cosine factors being based on computed cosines, which cosines are computed for angles that correspond to said representative angles (α 1. .. α N ) multiplied with two times the target number (n) of dominating orientations of the barcode image, estimating, by the code reader, one or more dominating orientations (α dom ) of the barcode image based on the first sum (a), the second sum (b), and the target number (n) of dominating orientations of the barcode image, and reading, by the code reader in response to the code reader having estimated the one or more dominating orientations (α dom ) of the barcode image, the barcode image along the one or more dominating orientations (α dom ) of the barcode image.