GRAPHIC CONTOUR EXTRACTING METHOD, PATTERN INSPECTING METHOD, PROGRAM AND PATTERN INSPECTION SYSTEM

A graphic contour extracting method includes: acquiring an image of a graphic form to be inspected; defining an inspection region for the image of the graphic form to be inspected by an inspection graphic form including at least one of a circle, an ellipse, a rectangle, a first rectangular graphic form, a second rectangular graphic form and a closed curved graphic form, at least one end of the first rectangular graphic form being replaced with any one of a semi-circle, a semi-ellipse and a parabola, at least one of four corners of the second rectangular graphic form being replaced with a ¼ circle or a ¼ ellipse, the closed curved graphic form being expressed by the following expression: and the inspection graphic form having an edge searching direction previously defined for at least one component thereof; and searching an edge of the graphic form to be inspected on the basis of the inspection graphic form to acquire contour information of the graphic form to be inspected.