Patent ID: 8670623

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a character extraction portion extracting a character from raster image data; a complexity calculation portion obtaining a degree of complexity indicating complexity of the character; a determination portion determining, based on the degree of complexity obtained by the complexity calculation portion, whether or not curve approximation is to be used when the character is converted from a raster format to a vector format; and an image conversion portion converting, when the determination portion determines that the curve approximation is to be used, the character from the raster format to the vector format by performing straight-line approximation or the curve approximation on each part of a contour of the character, and converting, when the determination portion determines that the curve approximation is not to be used, the character from the raster format to the vector format by performing the straight-line approximation on each part of the contour of the character without performing the curve approximation thereon, wherein the complexity calculation portion obtains, as the degree of complexity, a ratio of a number of edge pixels that are pixels forming edges of the character to a value that indicates a size of the character, and wherein the determination portion determines that the curve approximation is not to be used when the degree of complexity obtained by the complexity calculation portion is equivalent to a value that indicates more complexity than predetermined complexity.