1. A figure reading apparatus for reading, recognizing and outputting a figure, the figure reading apparatus comprising: image input means for inputting a color image; main color extraction means for extracting main colors contained in the color image and resolving the color image into main color images respectively of the main colors extracted from the input color image; projection means for projecting points of extracted main colors on a three-dimensional space onto a plane by using a conversion expression; candidate narrowing down means for removing combinations that need not be combined according to features of distance between main colors projected onto a two-dimensional space; and combination generation means for combining images from candidates narrowed down and generating an image area candidate.