1. A method of extracting information elements from a colour-containing digital image, the method comprising: distinguishing, in the digital image, connected components formed of contiguous pixels with a same colour; dividing connected component into background connected components and other connected components and grouping contiguous ones of said other connected components; allocating connected components belonging to a group of said other connected components to a foreground or to the background on the basis of a predetermined allocation criterion; and combining contiguous connected components allocated to the foreground and extracting a combined entity as an information element.