Patent ID: 7613318

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for generating an image to be printed on a recording medium, comprising: a determination unit configured to determine an embedding position of respective pieces of a plurality of sub information into a main image to be printed on a print surface; an image processing unit configured to generate a composite image obtained by embedding respective pieces of the sub information into the main image by the embedding position determined by the determination unit; a first memory configured to store first information indicating a degree of optical shielding of each of a plurality of regions of a protection layer formed on the print surface of the recording medium; a second memory configured to store second information indicating a priority level of the embedding position of the sub information corresponding to the degree of optical shielding; and a third memory configured to store third information indicating importance levels of the respective pieces of the sub information, wherein the determination unit determines the embedding position of the respective pieces of the sub information based on: the first information indicating the degree of optical shielding of each of the plurality of regions of the protection layer, the second information indicating the priority level of the embedding position of the sub information corresponding to the degree of optical shielding, and the third information indicating importance levels of the respective pieces of the sub information such that the pieces of the sub information with higher importance levels are assigned to regions with lower degrees of optical shielding and the pieces of the sub information with lower importance levels are assigned to regions with higher degrees of optical shielding.