METHOD, COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM AND APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING CHARACTERS FROM COLOR FROM COLOR IMAGE DATA

A method, computer program product and apparatus for extracting characters from color image data include inputting color image data, separating the input color image data into a plurality of color component data, and converting each of the plurality of color component data into a plurality of bi-level color component data, respectively. Other functions include circumscribing rectangles around linked pixels having identical bi-level values in the plurality of bi-level color component data, respectively; selecting the circumscribed rectangles in the plurality of bi-level color component data, respectively, based on the sizes of the circumscribed rectangles; merging the bi-level color component data inside the selected circumscribed rectangles; and outputting the merged bi-level image data.