PURPOSE: To decrease remarkably a reading storage time for one pattern's share by arranging a two-dimension sensor on a chip as a picture read means and storing the read data of each column in parallel onto a storage medium.

CONSTITUTION: In a sensor section 11 being a picture read means, n-set of linear image sensor arrays 11-1∼11-n are arranged continuously on a sensor chip 12 in the direction intersecting orthogonally with the read moving direction to form the 2-dimension sensor. The sensor section 11 is driven intermittently, and the linear image sensor arrays 11-1∼11-n read sequentially a prescribed unit region when the sensor is at a stop, the read data are stored once alternately in memories M1, M2 when the sensor section 11 is moved, the contents are read alternately in a prescribed timing and stored contrinuously on a magnetic tape. Each data read respectively by the n-set of linear image sensor arrays is read in parallel and recorded on the magnetic tape via a multi magnetic head in parallel, allowing to reduce the reading time.