In addition to reviewing the characteristics of document processing systems, this paper pays considerable attention to the description of a system via a feature list approach. The purpose of this report is to present features of the systems in parallel fashion to facilitate comparison so that a potential user may have a basis for evaluation in terms of the capabilities which his requirements demand. The state-of-the-art in on-line document processing systems has been moving very rapidly. The software progress in data base management, heuristic programming, automatic abstracting and indexing and also the hardware progress in front-end computers, optical character recognition devices, on-line data entry devices, etc., all have played a part. Because of the lack of tools to determine precise performance measurements, the problem of system performance evaluation is not considered. (Author/NH)