1. An image processing apparatus, comprising: means for inputting a document image to be processed; means for extracting a non-character area from the document image, wherein the non-character area comprises a line; means for generating a character image by removing the non-character area from the document image; means for segmenting the character image into a plurality of sections to generate a segmented image; means for adjusting the segmented image using an area previously occupied by the previously removed line of the non-character area as a separator to separate a merged section of the plurality of sections of the segmented image into different sections to generate an adjusted segmented image in which the merged section is separated into the different sections; and means for outputting a segmentation result generated based on the adjusted segmented image.