Patent ID: 8189229

Claim:
An image processing method for performing position adjustment of image data of multiple pages which has been inputted, the method comprising: a division step of dividing, for each page, the image data into multiple areas which include an object to be rendered, wherein the multiple areas are set as candidate areas for position adjustment; an adjustment value calculation step of calculating, for each page, an adjustment value for position adjustment, based on respective areas divided in the division step; a shift amount calculation step of calculating a shift amount of the image data on each page, based on a difference between the adjustment value of each page calculated in the adjustment value calculation step and a predetermined value for position adjustment; a shifting step of shifting the image data on each page based on the shift amount calculated in the shift amount calculation step; a designation step of designating an exclusion area that is excluded from the candidate areas in accordance with a user input; an exclusion area setting step of setting the exclusion area of the multiple areas, which is to be excluded from the multiple areas divided in the division step designated in the designation step; and a deletion step of deleting the exclusion area from the candidate areas, and updating the candidate areas included in the exclusion area set in the exclusion area setting step among the multiple areas, and setting candidate areas for image data position adjustment, wherein the adjustment value calculation step calculates the adjustment value according to the updated candidate areas updated in the deletion step, wherein the adjustment value calculation step has a circumscribed rectangle calculation step of calculating a location of a circumscribed rectangle around the updated candidate areas as the adjustment value, and wherein the predetermined value is calculated as an average value of locations of circumscribed rectangles for respective pages calculated in the circumscribed rectangle calculation step.