Patent ID: 6927874

Claim:
An image processing apparatus for combining material images, which have been selected from a plurality of material images, to create an image patterned after an original image, comprising: input means for inputting an original image; storage means for storing the plurality of material images; image characteristic acquisition means for dividing the original image into a plurality of areas, subdividing each of these areas into a plurality of subareas and obtaining a first image characteristic of each subarea; designation means for designating an important area of each of the plurality of material images; means for obtaining a second image characteristic of each of the plurality of material images in dependence upon the important area designated by said designation means; distance calculation means for calculating a difference between the first image characteristic and the second image characteristic to calculate distances between each area of the original image and each of the material images; selection means for selecting a material image corresponding to each area in dependence upon the distances calculated by said distance calculation means; and generating means for generating the image patterned after the original image by pasting the material image selected by said selection means, to the corresponding each area of the original image.