Patent ID: 8073256

Claim:
An image processing apparatus in which at least a portion of pages of a first set of image data comprising a plurality of pages is replaced by at least a portion of pages of a second set of image data comprising a plurality of pages, comprising: a storage unit configured to store the first set of image data and the second set of image data; an extraction unit configured to extract character images of the first set of image data and character images of the second set of image data; a character recognition unit configured to, for each page, perform character recognition on character strings contained in the character images extracted by the extraction unit; a similarity determination unit configured to, for each page, compare the character strings of pages of the first set of image data and the character strings of pages of the second set of image data, which have undergone character recognition by the character recognition unit, and determines a degree of similarity therebetween; and a replacement unit configured to replace at least the portion of pages of the first set of image data with at least the portion of pages of the second set of image data based on a determination result of the similarity determination unit.