Patent US 5,625,720

An image processing apparatus includes a scanner unit for reading an image of an original document, a memory which, if the image is read by the scanner unit in a divided manner as a plurality of partial images, stores the read partial images as respective partial document data, and a joint-portion processing section. The joint-portion processing section is for recognizing joints of the partial document data stored in the memory and for joining the partial document data according to the recognized joints.