1. A method for determining the orientation of Chinese words, the method comprising the steps of: (a) entering a word image that has a plurality of pixels, including a plurality of dark pixels forming a Chinese word and a plurality of bright pixels; (b) generating a plurality of horizontal coordinates corresponding to a plurality of vertical lines of the word image; (c) counting a plurality of vertical projections, each of which is the number of dark pixels on the vertical line associated with each of the horizontal coordinates; (d) selecting a first coordinate and a second coordinate, corresponding to the largest and second largest vertical projections, respectively; (e) selecting a third coordinate between the first coordinate and the second coordinate; and (f) determining the orientation of the Chinese word as right-side up if the third coordinate is located to the left of the word image center and as upside down if the third coordinate is located to the right of the word image center.