Patent ID: 7257567

Claim:
A document retrieving method for retrieving a document from a storage by using an information processing apparatus comprising: a first acquisition step of acquiring text data by executing character-recognition processing for image data of a document and acquiring text feature data based on the text data acquired as a result of the character-recognition processing; a second acquisition step of acquiring layout feature data based on the image data of the document; a storing step of storing, in storage means, text feature data and layout feature data respectively acquired from a registered document in said first and second acquisition steps, in association with the registered document; a determining step of determining, for a search document from which text feature data and layout feature data have been acquired in said first and second acquisition steps, whether the text feature data acquired from the search document or the layout feature data acquired from the search document is used for a narrowing-down process, based on the text feature data acquired from the search document in said first acquisition step; a first narrow-down step of narrowing down a plurality of registered documents stored in the storage means based on the text feature data acquired from the search document in said first acquisition step if said determining step determined that the text feature data acquired from the search document is used; a second narrow-down step of narrowing down the plurality of registered documents stored in the storage means based on the layout feature data acquired from the search document in said second acquisition step if said determining step determined that the layout feature data acquired from the search document is used; and a retrieving step of retrieving a document, based on both the text feature data and the layout feature data acquired from the search document in said first and second acquisition steps, from the registered documents narrowed-down in said first narrow-down step or said second narrow-down step.