1. A method for automatic recognition of image and text/graphics areas on a master comprising the steps of: opto-electronically scanning said master for generating analog signals corresponding to printed matter on said master; converting said analog signals into corresponding digital information; storing said digital information in a data field in a memory which is subdivided into a plurality of partially overlapping windows forming a grid co-extensive with said data field, said windows having edge lengths selected to be greater than the known spacing between two successive lines of text on said master; generating a grayscale value histogram for each window; evaluating the maximum occurring brightness value of the entire master; defining a lower brightness limit by a certain percentage of the maximum occurring brightness value in determining the percentage of samples within each grayscale value histogram which have a brightness between said maximum occurring brightness value and said lower brightness limit; comparing said percentage of samples for each window to a selected decision threshold value; classifying a window as an image area if said percentage of samples is less than said decision threshold value; and classifying said window as a test/graphics area if said percentage of samples is equal to or greater than said decision threshold value.