1. A non-transitory computer-readable record medium in which a telop character extraction program to be executed by a computer is stored, the telop character extraction program comprising: an image input unit which receives a telop region image that contains telop characters cut out from color image data; a gray-scale image generation unit which generates a gray-scale image from the telop region image; an edge region extraction unit which generates an edge region image where an edge is extracted from within the gray-scale image and is inflated; a histogram creation unit which uses the edge region image as a mask image, and which creates a luminance histogram of pixels of the gray-scale image as belong to the mask image; a luminance class generation unit which divides a luminance of the luminance histogram into a plurality of luminance classes; a character pattern candidate selection unit which generates binary images where pixels of luminances belonging to the individual classes are collected for the respective luminance classes, and which selects the binary image of the class of maximum area, as a telop character candidate image; and a noise elimination unit which decides on a character color used in the telop region image, in correspondence with the telop character candidate image, and which extracts character pixels corresponding to the character color, from within the telop character candidate image, thereby to eliminate noise pixels and to generate a telop character image.