A sheet recognizing device and method for precisely checking the authentication of a sheet by performing recognition of color and watermark of a sheet and detecting the subtle characteristic of a hue ink printed on one side of the sheet. The sheet recognizing device comprises first and third light sources for projecting light at predetermined angles to a sheet, a second light source for projecting light from a vertical direction, first and second light-receiving elements for receiving light at angles at which the hues of the hue ink printed area originated from the lights from the first and second light sources are different, a third light-receiving element opposed to the second light source with the sheet interposed therebetween, first computing means for computing a first color tone depending on the hue ink printed area on the basis of the light-reception outputs from the first light-receiving element due to the light from the first light source and from the second light-receiving element due to the light from the third light source, second computing means for computing a second color tone independent of the hue ink printed area on the basis of the light-reception outputs from the first light-receiving element due to the light from the second light source and from the third light-receiving element due to the light from the third light source, whereby the sheet is checked on the basis of the computation results by the first and second computing means.