IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS INCLUDING A BLANK-AREA IDENTIFYING UNIT AND A CONCEALING UNIT, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

An image processing apparatus includes following components. A blank-area identifying unit identifies a blank area having a size exceeding a predetermined size, from a non-specifying-mark image portion of a recording area image of a recording area that includes individual images and a specifying mark specifying an area containing images among the individual images. A concealing unit conceals a divided area specified by the specifying-mark image, among divided areas obtained by dividing a non-blank area by a gap having a width equal to or larger than a threshold in a specific direction, among gaps between the individual images arranged in the specific direction in the non-blank area. The non-blank area is an area of the non-specifying-mark image portion of the recording area image other than the blank area identified by the blank-area identifying unit.