Patent ID: 8587842

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for scanning an image residing on a medium, the image processing apparatus comprising: a scanner unit comprising: a scanner head having at least a scanning width, the scanning width corresponding to a width in a first direction of the medium; and a moving unit that moves the scanner head in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; a central processing unit that controls the scanner head and the moving unit to perform a scanning operation such that the moving unit moves the scanner head at a first speed; and an image processing unit that determines whether each of a predetermined number of consecutive lines scanned under control of the central processing unit is blank or not; wherein the central processing unit further controls the scanner head and the moving unit to perform the scanning operation such that the moving unit moves the scanner head at a second speed higher than the first speed, based on a determination by the image processing unit that each of the predetermined number of consecutive lines, scanned under control of the central processing unit, is blank.