Patent ID: 7904836

Claim:
An image reproduction method comprising: a reduced-size image reading step of reading a plurality of reduced-size images from a recording medium and storing the reduced-size images in a memory; a display step of multi-displaying the plurality of reduced-size images on a monitor; a cursor movement detection step of detecting a moving speed of a cursor indicating a selected reduced-size image from the plurality of reduced-size images displayed on the monitor; and an image read-ahead step of reading a group of a number of reduced-size images from the recording medium and of storing the group of reduced-size images in the memory, the number corresponding to the moving speed of the cursor, wherein the image read-ahead step includes: a main image reading step of reading, if the cursor is stopped for a predetermined time, a main image corresponding to a reduced-size image pointed by the cursor from the recording medium and storing the main image in the memory, and a data holding control step of, upon interruption, holding, when a percentage of completion of reading the main image is higher than a predetermined percentage of completion, data of the main image stored in the memory, and discarding, when the percentage of completion of reading the main image is lower than the predetermined percentage of completion, data of the main image stored in the memory.