You could try a histogram across the whole ROI which should give you two distinct peaks (one for the background colour and one for the text colour), and then look at the intensity just inside the border of the ROI - if it's the same as the darker peak then you've got light text on a dark background, and if it's the same as the lighter peak then you've got dark text on a light background (this assumes that the area just inside the border is the background - depending on your image, that's a fairly safe assumption). Do you have any example images that you can post for us to look at?