IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE READING APPARATUS, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

An image processing system according to the present invention includes: a management server in which related information set with respect to reference image data is stored; a similarity determination process section for determining whether or not there is a similarity between input image data and the reference image data; a related information obtaining process section for obtaining related information from a related information storage section if the similarity determination process section determines that there is a similarity between the input image data and the reference image data; and a control section for adding the related information obtained to the input image data. With the arrangement, it becomes possible for the image processing system to add appropriate related information to inputted image data, so as to realize an accurate search for the image data on the basis of the related information.