A character recognition method may include at least the following steps. A location step may include acquiring an image and locating a character region of the image. The character region may include a character and a local background. The method may further include a background judgment step for determining whether the local background is a complex background; a determination step for determining a color of the character if the local background is a complex background; a construction step for constructing a mask for the character by combining the color of the character and a character region; and a first recognition step for extracting the character from the character region by using the mask, recognizing the character, and outputting the recognition result. A character recognition device is further provided.