Patent ID: 7437002

Claim:
An image processing apparatus which processes an input image, comprising: an edge image creating unit configured to create an edge image by executing an extracting operation on the input image; a thresholding unit configured to create a binary image by performing a thresholding operation on the input image; an extracting unit configured to extract a first character area from the input image by using the edge image and to extract a second character area from the input image by using the binary image; a determination unit configured to determine whether the first character area extracted from the input image by using the edge image is a reversed character area; a first binarization unit configured to binarize the first character area by reversing and performing a thresholding operation on the first character area if it is determined by said determination unit that the first character area is a reversed character area, and to binarize the first character area by performing a theresholding operation on the first character area if it is determined by said determination unit that the first character area is a non-reversed character area; a second binarization unit configured to binarize the second character area by performing a thresholding operation on the second character area; and an overwriting unit configured to overwrite the first character area binarized by said first binarization unit by using the second character area binarized by said second binarization unit if the first character area and the second character area overlap.