A method for image processing is disclosed. The method includes: obtaining an image including a check with a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) code; generating a mask including a plurality of shapes based on the image and an estimated rotation angle of the check; generating a stroke width map (SWM) by applying a stroke width transform (SWT) to a plurality of regions in the image corresponding to the plurality of shapes; generating a first word line associated with a first region based on a plurality of words in the SWM; rotating a portion of the SWM associated with the first word line; and detecting, after rotating, the MICR code by applying a plurality of OCR processes to the portion of the SWM.