Patent ID: 8760722

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: an area designation unit configured to designate a processing area within an input image; an image processing unit configured to perform predetermined processing on the processing area; a marker area detection unit configured to detect a marker area in the input image, the marker area being capable of accommodating a marker that demarcates the processing area, the marker area providing a plurality of possible positions of the marker; and a marking unit configured to select one of the possible positions in the marker area, based on priority conditions, wherein the marking unit determines the position to place the marker, based on the priority conditions stored in a control data storage unit, the priority conditions defining different priorities associated with different relative positions of the marker with respect to the processing area, the priorities being successively higher for successively smaller overlapping areas of the marker and processing, the priorities being successively lower for successively larger overlapping areas of the marker and processing.