Method and apparatus for processing an image including a character are disclosed. The method may include: searching in a set of characters one or more characters having highest similarities of shape to a character in the set of characters, hereinafter the character being referred to as a first character, the one or more searched characters forming a similar character list of the first character; searching in the set of characters one or more characters having highest similarities of shape to each character in the similar character list of the first character, to form a similar character list of each character in the similar character list of the first character; and selecting in the similar character lists one or more characters having a high mutual similarity between each other, as a character cluster.