Patent ID: 7346212

Claim:
A method of arranging at least one image within a display area, the method comprising the steps of: analysing the at least one image in accordance with at least one predefined compositional rule; selecting an image boundary the shape of which, in accordance with said analysis, best fits the at least one image; applying the image boundary to the at least one image to produce a processed image; and placing the processed image within said display area, wherein the step of analysing the image comprises identifying at least one region of compositional significance based on color and/or contrast and/or brightness differences with respect to adjacent regions in the image, and applying at least one of: a) at least one compositional rule to identify regions which should be included within the processed image; and b) at least one compositional rule to identify regions which should be excluded from the processed image, wherein said step of analysing the image further comprises identifying “don't care” regions of images, said “don't care” regions comprising regions that may be optionally excluded from said image boundary.