1. An image processing apparatus comprising: a processor; a memory, wherein the memory stores: an area extracting unit configured to extract from a document image an area to be determined; a closed-loop calculating unit configured to calculate a number of closed loops within the area to be determined that is extracted by the area extracting unit; a characteristics extracting unit configured to extract characteristics other than the number of closed loops from the area to be determined when the closed-loop calculating unit calculates that the number of closed loops is less than a first threshold and not less than a second threshold, wherein the first threshold is greater than the second threshold; and an area determining unit configured to determine a type of area of the area to be determined, wherein, when the number of closed loops calculated by the closed-loop calculating unit is not less than the first threshold, the area determining unit determines that the area to be determined is a photograph area, wherein, when the number of closed loops calculated by the closed-loop calculating unit is less than the second threshold, the area determining unit determines that the area to be determined is a character area, and wherein, when the number of closed loops calculated by the closed-loop calculating unit is less than the first threshold and not less than the second threshold, the characteristics extracting unit extracts the characteristics, and the area determining unit determines whether the area to be determined is a character area, based on the characteristics extracted by the characteristics extracting unit.