Patent ID: 8125683

Claim:
An image processing apparatus, comprising: an attribute extracting unit configured to extract an image characteristic amount for each of a plurality of small areas formed by dividing image data of a document; a preview generating unit configured to generate, based on the image data, a preview image that shows how the document will look on an output page; a display unit configured to display the preview image and to allow an operator to specify a position of the preview image displayed thereon; a position-information obtaining unit configured to obtain position information indicative of the specified position in the preview image; and a processing unit configured to select, according to how many times the position is specified in a successive manner, a small area having an equal image characteristic amount with the small area corresponding to the specified position whose position information is obtained by the position-information obtaining unit, and to perform, on the selected small area, a process according to the image characteristic amount of the selected small area, wherein when the position is specified twice in a successive manner, the processing unit selects small areas having an equal image characteristic amount with the small area corresponding to the specified position and being connected, when the position is specified three times in a successive manner, the processing unit selects small areas within a predetermined distance from the specified area, the selected small areas having an equal image characteristic amount and not being connected, and when the position is specified four times in a successive manner, the processing unit selects the whole document.