when texts recognized by an ocr are registered and those texts are searched by a search word , a state in which the search cannot be performed depending on an error recognition at the time of the recognition by the ocr is eliminated . it is an object of the invention to realize a process such that no burden is exerted on an operator or an apparatus by the above state . there are provided an ocr processor for recognizing stored image information and outputting a recognition result while switching the number of candidate characters to be outputted as a recognition result in accordance with a degree of a likelihood ; and a document searcher for forming character trains for search from the recognition result and for registering as a search file .