1. A digital image capture and processing system comprising: a housing having an imaging window; an area-type image formation and detection subsystem, disposed in said housing, and having image formation optics for projecting a field of view (FOV) through said imaging window and an area-type image detection array having a plurality of rows of image detection elements and a periodic snap-shot mode of operation for forming and detecting a 2D digital image of the object during each image acquisition cycle of said area-type image detection array; an LED-based illumination subsystem, disposed in said housing, including a LED illumination array for producing a field of illumination within said FOV, and illuminating said object detected in said FOV, so that said illumination reflects off said object and is transmitted back through a light transmission aperture and onto said area-type image detection array to form each said 2D digital image of said object; an illumination control subsystem, disposed in said housing, for controlling the operation of said LED illumination array within said LED-based illumination subsystem; wherein during said periodic snap shot mode of the operation, said area-type image detection array supports periodic image acquisition cycles; wherein during each said image acquisition cycle, substantially all image detection elements in said area-type image detection array are exposed simultaneously to said illumination; and wherein each said image acquisition cycle has a predetermined time duration followed by a decode-processing cycle having a decode time duration approximately equal to the duration of said image acquisition cycle; an image capturing and buffering subsystem, disposed in said housing, for capturing and buffering 2D digital images detected by said area-type image formation and detection subsystem; wherein during each said image acquisition cycle, (i) said rows in said area-type image detection array are reset, (ii) then said rows are simultaneously exposed to illumination produced by said LED-based illumination subsystem while controlled by said illumination control subsystem, and (iii) then pixel data from said area-type image detection array is transmitted to said image capturing and buffering subsystem; a digital image processing subsystem for processing 2D digital images captured and buffered by said image capturing and buffering subsystem and reading 1D and 2D bar code symbols graphically represented in said 2D digital images; an input/output subsystem, disposed in said housing, for outputting processed image data to an external host system or other information receiving or responding device; and a system control subsystem, disposed in said housing, for controlling and/or coordinating said subsystems during object illumination and imaging operations.