1. An apparatus comprising: a binary image generation unit configured to generate binary image data by performing binarization processing on input image data; an edge image generation unit configured to generate edge image data by performing edge extraction processing on the input image data; a first area identification unit configured to acquire a first area identification result by performing area identification processing on the binary image data; a second area identification unit configured to acquire a second area identification result by performing area identification processing on the edge image data; a merging unit configured to generate a merged area identification result by merging the first area identification result and the second area identification result; and an output binary image generation unit configured to generate output binary image data by performing partial binarization processing on the input image data according to each character area included in the merged area identification result.