An area of interest is scanned to produce pixels of the scanned area. The pixels are divided into a plurality of blocks. For each block, an orientation of a spanning line or a lack of orientation is determined. Contiguous ones of the blocks are clustered, when their orientation is within a certain tolerance level. Each cluster has a length and a width. The length is longer than the width. If the orientation of a cluster's block is perpendicular to the length of that cluster, that cluster is selected as a bar code candidate.