Patent US 5,583,955

There is disclosed an image processing apparatus which can edit every area of an original image. Such an apparatus has a designating device to designate a desired area in an original, a memory for dividing the outline of the designated image area into a plurality of line segments and storing data defining the plurality of line segments, a forming circuit to form area data defining the image area based on the data defining the plurality of line segments read out of memory, and a processor to execute the processing of every area of the original image on the basis of the area data formed by the forming circuit. The memory stores the data defining a start point, an end point, and a slope of each of the line segments. With the apparatus, not only a rectangle area but also a plurality of complicated non-rectangle areas can be easily edited and processed by a simple program using a memory of a small capacity.