Patent ID: 8200357

Claim:
An embroidery data creation apparatus that creates embroidery data to be used for embroidery sewing by a sewing machine based on image data constituted by an aggregation of a plurality of pixels to form an arbitrary image, the apparatus comprising: an angle information calculation device that calculates an angle characteristic and an angle characteristic intensity for each of the pixels constituting the image data, the angle characteristic indicating a direction with a high continuity of a color, and the angle characteristic intensity indicating an intensity of the continuity; an angle information storage device that stores the angle characteristic and the angle characteristic intensity calculated by the angle information calculation device as angle information; a region specification device that specifies a change region in which the angle information stored in the angle information storage device is to be changed; an angle characteristic specification device that specifies a post-change angle characteristic, the post-change angle characteristic being a post-change quantity of the angle characteristic stored in the angle information storage device; an angle characteristic change device that changes the respective angle characteristics of pixels included in the change region specified by the region specification device based on the post-change angle characteristic specified by the angle characteristic specification device, and that stores the angle characteristics into the angle information storage device after the angle characteristics are changed; a line segment data creation device that creates line segment data that indicates line segments based on the angle information stored in the angle information storage device, the line segments each being a trajectory of a thread to be disposed on each of the pixels; a color data creation device that creates color data that indicates a thread color for each of the line segments contained in the line segment data created by the line segment data creation device based on the image data; and an embroidery data creation device that creates the embroidery data based on the line segment data created by the line segment data creation device and the color data created by the color data creation device.